All Souls Day: Visit a Cemetery and Pray for the Dead

Larry and I always visit cemeteries on All Souls Day and pray for the dead. Today we said our rosary at four different cemeteries in Woodstock, dedicating each decade to a deceased group: to our parents, our grandparents, our aunts and uncles and their families, our siblings/in-laws and cousins and their families, and our friends and all those who have touched our lives and their families. We also prayed for all the souls of the people buried in the cemeteries which included some Civil War vets. One headstone commemorated a veteran of the Stonewall Brigade who survived that horrible war. So many didn't and we prayed for them as well. We wondered how many born before the war lived through the terrible days of "The Burning."

I find it sobering and instructive to visit cemeteries. One memorial plaque was dedicated to all our veterans. It said, "As you are, I once was. As I am, you will be." and sooner than you know. One thing you realize reading the dates on gravestones is how short this life is. What a tragedy to trade a few moments of sinful pleasure for an eternity in hell.

Many people think of God as just a nice guy, a kind of back-slapping hale and farewell buddy who wouldn't think of spoiling anybody's fun no matter how perverse (except intolerance, of course). He is the Sugar Daddy in the sky waiting to welcome everybody to Candyland. Or, the master vinter, passing out the champagne to all as they enter the pearly gates -- repentant and unrepentant alike.

Well, I hate to spoil anybody's delusion, but some are dangerous. The idea of universal salvation is a heresy. And if it were true, why, in God's name, did Jesus have to die on the cross? He didn't, of course! His torture and death to save man from sin would be a cruel joke if no one needed saving. To believe that no matter what you do you go to heaven demeans Christ's sacrifice. Hell exists and people go there. That's reality!

Many saints believed that most people will go to hell. And both the Bible and the apparitions of Our Lady don't dispel that notion. The three little shepherd children at Fatima saw a vision of hell where souls, like blackened embers, were falling in as thick as snowflakes in a storm. Mary told the children that most souls go to hell for sins of the flesh. Think about it...our sexually obsessed culture offers pornography, adultery, fornication, sodomy, etc. as no big deal. And the consequent sins of contraception, abortion, and infanticide don't get much more than a shrug either. And that's before we consider the other deadly sins like greed, gluttony, envy, etc.

Jesus talked more about hell (Gehenna, the place of fire, etc.) than almost any other subject. Why would Jesus, Our Lady, and the saints talk so much about an empty place that no one has to worry about? The reality is those people lacking in love are probably more likely to be motivated by fear. Jesus may have spoken so much about hell to save them from a presumption that says, "Oh God wouldn't punish anybody because He is so loving."

But love includes respecting  free will. That means allowing the beloved to reject Him Who is Love. In one sense God won't "condemn" anyone to hell. He will simply allow those who reject Him to walk away. The souls who reach out to God in repentance, even at the 11th hour, will go to heaven, perhaps after a long stay in purgatory. Those, however, who habitually walk hand in hand with the evil one are unlikely to hear the voice of God at that late hour and turn back to Him, especially when it means giving up their pet sins. And, after all, will they even see their sins or will they compare themselves to someone else. "Thank God, Lord, that I'm not like those greedy CEOs on Wall Street. I loved my neighbor. Just ask the people who saw me 'loving' all those folks in Zuccotti park."

As the Bible says, strive to enter through the narrow gate because the way is wide that leads to perdition. Visit a cemetery today and reflect on where you are going. Is your life following the narrow path to heaven's gate or are you on the "primrose path of dalliance" that leads to hell? Destination matters!