6 November, Antonio Cardinal Bacci: Meditations For Each Day

The Communion of Saints and the Souls in Purgatory

1. The Communion of Saints is one of the most consoling doctrines of our religion. This dogma assures us that the Church militant, suffering, and triumphant is one family whose members are bound together by the bonds of divine charity. As the Saints in Heaven love and pray for us and for the souls in Purgatory, so the suffering souls love and intercede for us, and so we should love and pray for them. This is a triple harmony of love and prayer, a hymn which rises to the throne of God from our place of pilgrimage, from the region of expiation where the separated souls are aflame with the desire to be united with their Creator, and from the joyful choirs of Heaven. The result is the pouring of divine grace on ourselves and on the souls in Purgatory.

The souls of the dead, therefore, whether they are among the blessed in Heaven or are expiating their sins in Purgatory, are united to us in that they love us and pray for us. Between them and us there is a real but invisible link, an exchange of thought, of affections, and of prayer. There are all the elements of a true and lasting friendship.

This is a very consoling realisation. We have not lost our dear ones who have gone to God. They are looking down on us, thinking of us, and waiting for us. We in our turn can think of them, love them still, and pray for them.

2. This consoling doctrine of the Communion of Saints is the foundation of devotion towards the faithful departed. The universal Church, both on earth, in Purgatory, and in Heaven, constitutes the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the channel of the divine life of Jesus. This life is not extinguished by death, but only by mortal sin, which makes us like dead limbs separated from the vine which is Christ. The souls of those belonging to us who have died in the state of grace, therefore, are living members of the Mystical Body of Christ. Now, the different members of the human body do not possess a separate life, but are all coordinated and directed towards the good of the whole body. In the same way, all the members of the Mystical Body, whether they are exiles on earth, suffering souls in Purgatory, or blessed in Heaven, should help one another so as to promote the welfare of the whole. The blessed in Heaven and the faithful departed certainly do this, but we ought to do the same. We should preserve a bond of love and prayer between ourselves and our loved ones who have departed from this life before us.

3. Let us remember, however, that this will be impossible if we fall into mortal sin and so extinguish in ourselves the divine life which comes to us through the Mystical Body of Christ. In such an unhappy event we shall have become branches separated from the vine, lifeless and rotting. We shall no longer be able to claim brotherhood with the blessed in Heaven or with the holy souls in Purgatory. We shall be nothing but dry wood, destined to feed the everlasting flames of Hell.