The Clock is Ticking For All of Us
by
John J. Dunphy
(Originally published in the 11/2/19 edition of The Telegraph of Alton, IL)
By this time, you’ll have put away your Halloween decorations and are guiltily munching the leftover trick or treat candy. However, the season traditionally known by such names as Allhallowstide or Allsaintstide merely begins on Oct. 31 and also encompasses Nov. 1 (All Hallows’ or All Saints’ Day). This triduum doesn’t conclude until today, Nov. 2: All Souls’ Day.
I was taught during my Catholic childhood that All Souls’ Day was a time to remember the suffering of the deceased whose souls had been consigned to Purgatory. Not worthy of admittance to heaven but far too virtuous to be sent to hell, these souls undergo suffering in purgatory until they have been sufficiently purified to enter heaven.
I recall being instructed that prayers could alleviate the suffering of those in Purgatory. Since I’ve been away from Catholicism for many decades, I checked to see if such was still the case — and indeed it is! I found this on Our Catholic Prayers, a devotional web site: “Remember, that our prayers for souls in purgatory, along with our sacrifices and sufferings bared with grace, can shorten their time there (and perhaps ours as well).”
Luther’s Reformation rejected the existence of Purgatory as well as All Souls’ Day. Lutherans adopted Nov. 1 as a day to commemorate deceased family members. According to a web site maintained by the Lutheran church of Denmark, where Lutheranism is the state religion, “Many people visit the graveyard or the cemetery on All Saints’ Day and it has become common to light a candle on the graves of loved ones.”
The Articles of Religion comprise the bedrock of the Anglican Church. Article XXII, titled “Of Purgatory,” explicitly rejects purgatory as “a Romish doctrine” that “is a fond thing vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the World of God.” Anglican Churches observe All Souls’ Day as “the Commemoration of All Faithful Departed” and regard it as an extension of All Saints’ Day.
All Souls’ Day for me is a time to remember my departed relatives and friends. How many area residents still remember George Deex, the owner of the Broadway Newsstand and Godfrey Book Store? George was a kind, generous person who went out of his way to help others. He was shot to death by a police officer in Maryland Heights, MO in 1990.
Ron Hempel was one of my classmates at SIUE back in the 1970s. A photographer, Ron did quite a bit of free-lance work for The Telegraph and other area newspapers. I was horrified when he was shot to death during a robbery while working as a cab driver in 2000.
When my wife and I were driving home from a vacation in 2008, I saw the name of a dear friend on a sign outside a funeral home. The sign informed me that I had missed her visitation. Today I’ll especially remember a beloved friend who lived in Chicago and lost her battle with cancer this year. My friend’s young daughter will have only the vaguest memories of her mother.
I observe All Souls’ Day as a time to commemorate all the deceased, including those who existed on the very fringes of society and now occupy paupers’ graves. As paradoxical as it sounds, we should try to remember the forgotten. A walk through almost any cemetery reveals many crumbling old tombstones whose names and dates have been worn away by the elements. Anonymity doesn’t diminish the worth of these graves’ occupants. “Each man’s death diminishes me,” John Donne wrote, “because I am involved in mankind. Therefore, send not to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.”
The message of All Souls’ Day is that the clock is ticking for all of us. Squander not a moment of this precious gift called life.
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John J. Dunphy’s books include Abolitionism and the Civil War in Southwestern Illinois and Unsung Heroes of the Dachau Trials: The Investigative Work of the U.S. Army 7708 War Crimes Group, 1945–1947. He is the Godfrey Fifteenth Precinct Democratic Committeeperson and serves as recording secretary for the Godfrey Democrats.