Today is All Souls’ Day. Yesterday was All Saints’ Day. 

Most Filipinos, even churchgoing ones, would be hard put to remember which is which.  But unerringly remembered—by those who love their parents and the idea of belonging to a family to whom one owes affection—is that on one of these two days, better if on both days, they must visit the graves of the family’s departed.
All Saints’ Day, celebrated every November 1, honors in particular the unknown saints.

Of course their relatives and friends know them. What is generally unknown is their being saints.  For their sainthood is not publicized. That’s because they are not canonized saints.  They are not on the Church’s formal list of saints.

Saints are people who are already enjoying the beatific vision in heaven.

Many men and women, without fanfare, are good imitators of Jesus Christ’s self-giving.  Silently they bear small and large crosses—by doing their duties heroically, giving of themselves all the time, and living a life of prayer and constant conversation with God whom they love so much. Their dialogue with God is not just at Holy Mass, in their moments of formal prayer and while saying the Rosary.  They carry on a wordless dialogue with God while working, commuting, or even while having a good laugh at dinner.

Sometimes their relatives and friends don’t realize that they are living saints and deserve being blissfully with God, Mother Mary and the other saints.  But that is what happens when they die.  Christians who have struggled hard to be in a state of grace—e.g. not having an unconfessed and unabsolved mortal sin in their souls—go straight to heaven. Or will soon be there after an ever so brief stay in purgatory.

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All Souls’ Day

Also called “The commemoration of all the faithful departed,” All Souls is always on November 2.  Our Filipino names for it, Araw ng mga Patay (Day of the Dead) or Araw ng mga Yumao (Day of the Departed) are similar to the Spanish “Dia de los Muertos” or “Dia de los Difuntos.”  It’s the perfect time to remember the dead on November 2.  Right after rejoicing on November 1 with all our parents, siblings, and friends who are in heaven, today we pray for all the dead who, in purgatory, are being made worthy to enjoy being in the company of God and His saints. 

The basis of this Roman Catholic celebration is the doctrine that the souls of the faithful which at death have not been cleansed by temporal punishment for their venial sins, or have not fully been cleansed of the stains of mortal sins, cannot attain the beatific vision without undergoing purification in purgatory. The Holy Mass, being the reenactment by Jesus of his sacrifice on Calvary, is the best prayer we can offer for our beloved departed.  Offering specific acts of sacrifice, almsgiving, and formal prayers for them also relieves their suffering.

But one can only properly talk about All Souls and All Saints in connection with the communion of saints.

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The communion of saints

This is the unity and collaboration of the members of the Church here on earth with those members of the Church who are now in heaven, the saints, and those who are still experiencing purification in purgatory.  They are united as one, as a solidarity, making up the Mystical Body of Christ. 

The members of the Church still on earth—the Church militant—are in communion with each other by professing the same faith, by obeying the same authority (the Church), by helping each other by their prayers and acts of love and service.  

They are in communion with the saints in heaven—the Church triumphant—by giving them honor as glorified members of Christ’s Mystical Body (which is the Church), by calling on them for assistance and intercession, and by trying hard to be like them in virtues and imitation of Christ. 

They are in communion with the members of the Church in purgatory—the Church suffering—by helping them with prayers, especially offering Masses for them, and by doing good works and acts of mortification (sacrifices).  In Catholic Churches throughout November, parishioners are encouraged to submit the names of their beloved departed for inclusion in the Prayers for the Dead part of the daily Masses.

The participants in this spiritual solidarity are called saints (even if those on earth and in purgatory are not yet enjoying beatific vision) because their destination is sainthood— being with God, and because they are partaking of the fruits of the Redemption.

Excluded from the communion of saints are the damned. These are men who have chosen and willed to be separated from God and the Mystical Body of Christ.

But any human being, even one who does not formally belong to the body of the Church as a baptized Christian, shares in it according to the measure of her or his union with Christ and with the soul of the Church.  The Church teaches that “baptism of desire” is, in God’s mercy and providence, sufficient to enable a person to obtain the state of grace and be saved. Vatican Council II’s Constitution of the Church has a paragraph that states: “Those who through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their action’s to do His will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience—these too may achieve eternal salvation.”