2 November 2021

Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed

Today the Church prays for all the departed servants of Christ, all those “who have gone before us with the sign of faith and rest in the sleep of peace” (Eucharistic Prayer I). In doing so, all of us are reminded that like those who now sleep in Christ, we too will face death at some point in the future. With death will come our own particular judgment and the beginning of our eternal reward, which is dependent on that judgment.

Remembering our own death—the practice of memento mori—can be at once sobering and freeing, because it relativizes the things of this world by placing them up against eternity. The example of the saints bears witness to the power of remembering death, as in the case of Francis Borgia, whose conversion was sparked by seeing the body of the Empress Isabella while accompanying her funeral cortege. 

On this day when the Church prays for the dead, let us take time to remember our own death and examine how it is that we stand with respect to eternity. Then, we can turn in faith to Christ, whose resurrection gives us hope.