Praying for the Dead

Talking to my evangelical friends about praying for the dead

Chapter 10 of the book Talking with My Evangelical Friends by José Miguel Arráiz

Michael: In our last conversation you spoke about purgatory. And I can understand which biblical texts you are based on to believe it, but I still do not understand why you should pray for the dead. If they were condemned, we know there is nothing else you can do for them because their situation is irrevocable, and if they were saved and they have only to be purified, then there wouldn’t be need for it either.

Joseph: Yes, but as I also said you earlier, those who died in God’s grace but are still imperfectly purified, suffer while being purified. Remember they are also part of the Church, which “is the body of Christ” (Rom 12,5; 1 Cor 12,27; Eph 4,12), and “if one member suffer any thing, all the members suffer with it.” (1 Cor 12,26) Praying for them is therefore a charity, so their suffering will soon finish and they can enjoy the sight and presence of God much earlier.

Michael: But how do you know that praying for them can benefit them or lessen their suffering?

Joseph: There is a text in Catholic Bibles, which you haven’t in your Protestant Bibles (later we can talk about that), where you can see that praying for the dead is something good and pleasing to God.

Michael: Which text is that?

Joseph: It’s found in the Book of Maccabees, and it narrates the following event:

“So Judas having gathered together his army, came into the city Odollam: and when the seventh day came, they purified themselves according to the custom, and kept the sabbath in the same place. And the day following Judas came with his company, to take away the bodies of them that were slain, and to bury them with their kinsmen, in the sepulchres of their fathers. And they found under the coats of the slain, some of the donaries of the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbiddeth to the Jews: so that all plainly saw, that for this cause, they were slain. Then they all blessed the just judgment of the Lord, who had discovered the things that were hidden. And so betaking themselves to prayers, they besought him, that the sin which had been committed might be forgotten. But the most valiant Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves from sin, forasmuch as they saw before their eyes what had happened, because of the sins of those that were slain. And making a gathering, he sent twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection. (For if he had not hoped that they that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead). And because he considered that they who had fallen asleep with godliness, had great grace laid up for them. It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.” (2 Macc 12, 38-46)

Notice how Judas realizes that some of his compatriots died and among their belongings were idols, and he attributed to this cause that they had perished in battle. Even then it was already revealed that the dead would be raised, so the Maccabean leader commands to sacrifice for the forgiveness of their sins, and the text describes it as “a holy and wholesome thought.”

Michael: But wait a moment. If indeed they died committing the sin of idolatry, isn’t that what you call a mortal sin? Did not you say those who die in mortal sin are condemned? Why would you pray for someone who has already been condemned?

Joseph: What happens is that Judas cannot know for sure if they actually died in mortal sin. We do not know if before his death, some, or even all, truly repented and as they made an act of perfect contrition, God forgave them. Hence Judas prefers piously, as an act of charity, to make sacrifices for the forgiveness of their sins.

Even in cases where everything indicates someone has died in grave sin, you should not take that for granted, because God always has the last word. Only He knows everyone’s intent and circumstances, and only he knows what happened during the last moments of his life. Even in the case of suicide, where there seems to be no time to repent, we cannot be sure of their condemnation.

On the other hand, we must not forget that God is omniscient and knows everything even before it happens. It is quite possible that He, seeing the prayer of his children from eternity, could have spilled graces to move them to conversion before dying.

Michael: But you can never know if someone has gone out of purgatory, so you never know if the time has come when even those prayers are useless.

Joseph: Although we do not know, it’s still a charity and a pious act praying for them because it is better to pray for someone who does not need it, than for someone who does need it and nobody is praying for him.

Of course, in the text of Maccabees, we don’t find an explicit basis for the doctrine of purgatory, but it reveals that prayers for the eternal rest of the deceased are not only pleasing to God, but they can help them, and as you have said: if they are already in heaven, they do not need help, and if they were condemned there’s no way to help them. There you have another biblical text that implicitly teaches the doctrine of purgatory.

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