ROCKFORD—Bishop David Malloy celebrated Mass in the mausoleum at Calvary Cemetery, Rockford, on a cold and cloudy All Souls Day, Nov. 2. 

 

“Human temptation is to see death as only darkness; as a total loss,” he said. “Perhaps too for ourselves, left behind ... our days also seem darker.”

 

But faith challenges such a perspective.

 

“Let perpetual light shine,” the bishop said, explaining, “That light is God Himself, a purifying light not just of God, but of His forgiveness, His healing presence.

 

“All Souls Day is a day to thank God for His mercy, first of all because each one of us has been given the offer of salvation, saved by Christ on the cross, saved from eternal damnation, saved from the sin of Adam and Eve that closed the doors of heaven ... 

 

“Each one of us here on this day of All Souls recognizes that we have a second chance,” Bishop Malloy continued. “The souls in purgatory also display God’s mercy and in some ways even more ... Purgatory means that in those flaws shown in mortal sin, we can still be purified after death ... our final flaws, sins, imperfections can be healed.

 

“God allows that our prayers, that our offering of the Mass and the Mass intentions our fulfillment of indulgences, all of those help to hasten the purification of our loved ones or even of those whom we have never known, those (who are) forgotten.

 

“We can and should fulfill our duty to pray for all the souls who are there. Our task is not just to mourn them, it is in fact to pray for them, to pray for all of the unremembered souls of all times, praying for God’s perpetual light. And in doing so our hope is this: that when our time comes, that others will be gathered here, in this same place in these same chairs, offering Mass for us in purgatory for our own cleansing and purification. 

 

“Let perpetual light shine upon them O Lord, with your saints forever, for you are merciful.”