THIS is a sequel to Thursday’s column, where we viewed the Christian beliefs on life after death as an unsettled controversy among theologians of various sects. This time, let us briefly discuss the two Church holidays associated with paying homage to the dead – All Saints Day and All Souls Day.
Strange as it seems the Christian world observes Nov. 1 as All Saints Day, the traditional day of praying for the dead, although it’s actually Nov. 2 that is known as All Souls Day in the Catholic liturgy.
Following tradition, the Roman Catholics and many other Christians in the Philippines go to the cemetery to “meet” their departed family members on Nov. 1, All Saints Day, which literally refers to the canonized Christian saints.
Shouldn’t Nov. 2 as All Souls Day be the right day on the premise that the dead morph into spirit souls.
More paradoxically, All Saints Day is a take-off from the Lemurian pagan festival, complementing Greek philosopher Plato’s idea of the dead transforming into an immortal soul or ghost.
The Catholic Church claims to have first celebrated it as a Christian holiday on May 13, 609 during the reign of Pope Boniface IV.
The holiday is associated with the doctrine that the souls of the faithful dead need to be prayed for to attain full sanctification and moral perfection before entering Heaven.
Other Christian denominations don’t share that view. The Methodist Church, for example, honor their dead on All Saints Day “more correctly” because the “saints” to them refer to both the living and the dead members of the Church.
It is undisputed that death is like a thief in the night that comes when least expected. No man is too young to die – or too old to survive. But as to what happens after death, opinions differ. Do we, like other animals, return to dust forever or move on to a higher plane of life?
In a sense, death is a homecoming because it brings us back to where we were in the beginning: “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Genesis 3:19).
The Bible indeed denies consciousness at the time of death: “For the living know that they shall die but the dead know nothing” (Ecclesiastes 9:5).
“His breath goeth forth, he returneth to earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.”
But if this were our permanent destination, then there is no sense in praying and hoping for life after death.
Who would not want life after death? Take it from poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: “Dust thou art to dust returneth was not spoken of the soul.”
All atheists agree that death is the end. But we believers disagree among ourselves as regards post-death existence.
The Bible offers no crystal-clear description of post-earth future. There are cases when what is not written is more popular than what is written. While preachers preach that Jesus will come again to resurrect the dead, they don’t conform as to the destination of the resurrected.
Roman Catholic laymen tend to embrace the belief that the soul leaves the dead body and may directly ascend to either heaven or hell, or may “drop by” purgatory first.
The thought of hell, which is generally viewed as perpetual torment in a lake of fire, should have been enough to deter Christians from killing, stealing and raping if “believers” really think firmly so. (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
