Novena for the dead
Take it from us, Filipinos. When it comes to remembering and honoring the dead, we do it in full force, even with great hoopla, especially come November when a day, extended into days, is dedicated for those who went ahead of us.
This, to me, is a great blessing, a strong indicator that in spite of our flaws and cracks in character and culture, we have a vivid sense of unity and family, theologically described as communion, among ourselves, both living and dead.
Distance and transitions from here to the hereafter are no hindrance to us. In our heart will always burn the belief that physical separation is no obstacle to our togetherness. We regard the whole of humanity as one big family and ultimately the people of God, despite our differences and mistakes.
We believe in the spiritual character of our life that underlies our earthly existence. It’s this aspect of our life that enables us to be above our earthly life’s wear and tear, and to transcend time itself. We never lose this seed of our immortality despite our physical decay.
Besides, if we go by the full extent of our Christian faith, we know that our life is always taken up by God himself, who wants us to participate in his very own life. Our life is never just our own. It’s always his and ours.
Thus, death is not an end. It’s simply a kind of change of residence. If we are to describe our life as a mathematical equation, we see death as the equals sign that connects and relates the left side, our life here, with the right side, our life hereafter. It summarizes our life here and determines the state of our afterlife.
We have to keep nourishing our heart in this faith, especially now when the world is bombarded with a dominantly materialistic and temporal outlook that holds death as a period, the end of the book of life.
My opinion though is that underneath an attention-grabbing layer of a Godless view of life held by a noisy group of unbelievers is a great mass of silent simple people, who still believe in our Christian faith. Sinners also, no doubt, but struggling to love God just the same.
Thus, I was happy to take hold of a booklet entitled, Novena for the Dead, compiled by Fr. Fernand Cruz and published by Theological Centrum of Manila, that puts together not only prayers and readings but also the relevant Christian doctrine about death.
It can strengthen our faith in Christian death, giving us a clear picture of the why and wherefore of our life and death here on earth. This, to me, is becoming a real necessity, given the ignorance and confusion engulfing us.
The reflections are gathered from a wide variety of writings from saints and Church teachings that surely will guide us in our tribute to the dead. There are several citations from St. Augustine and St. Josemaria Escriva.
A very interesting part is the prayer called, Acceptance of Death, that concludes the novena. To me, it captures the ideal over-all attitude we should have toward death, putting it in a good light, like a friend or sister and not a hunter eager to hunt us down.
It helps us to understand that with Christ’s work of redemption that culminated with his death on the cross, the sting of death itself has been eliminated. In its place is the balm of our salvation, a very Christian outlook on death.
Truth is, often our goodwill for the dead is not adequately supported by solid devotionary acts. Precisely because of this, many of us find ourselves clumsy. We do not know what to say or do.
This booklet will help take away that awkwardness. I consider it a good material to have when visiting wakes or celebrating death anniversaries or the All Souls’ Day.
It will deepen our faith and enhance our piety for the dead, providing us with appropriate thoughts, words and gestures. It can give more meaning to our commemoration of the dead, freeing us also from traces of superstition that unfortunately have also found their way into our practices through the years.
It certainly can help in creating a proper atmosphere on these occasions that often have seen the proliferation of rather inappropriate pastimes like card games and mahjongs.
In short, with this booklet and all the other similar ones, we can expect to improve and mature in our understanding of death.
(Fr. Cimagala is the Chaplain of Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City. Email: roycimagala@gmail.com)
