Column: Always (DCHerald November 2-8, 2008 issue)

Singing and Dancing with the Dead

by
Erwin Joey E. Cabilan

Remembering is not just recalling significant persons, places, things and events. It allows us to
connect to the past, to relish most treasured moments and to absorb those life-giving experiences that
highlight our journey. With the gift of memory, we bring into present what we value most in our past.
Why? With all humility, I don’t have an exact reason to give. But I would like to share one reason: a
person who loves never forgets.

In our Church’s liturgy, we celebrate what we love to remember. Usually, we remember those
that we see, touch, feel. We hold in our memory those experiences that are life-giving. What about
those who are already dead and those who are confronting death? Are the dead worth remembering?
How can we, as Easter people, sing and dance with the reality of death?

Love is what we celebrate

I cannot think of a catechetical strategy in order that the faithful can better understand and
appreciate death. Usually, we don’t want to talk about it. We have the difficulty to humbly accept it
because it is a painful reality. This is a human struggle. But when the Church incorporates the All
Souls’ Day, we, as a people of faith, admit what we can hardly imagine. We try to articulate what we
can hardly conceive. In silence and in deep trust to the Lord, we look upon Him in whom our souls
can be at rest. What is the essence of the annual celebration of the All Souls’ Day? Merry-making is
not the real essence of celebration. It is love that we celebrate! It is love that makes us remember the
dead. God’s love is not just for the living but also for those who have died.

Gratitude as an attitude for a lifetime

Personally, I consider the month of November as a moment in which God, through the Church,
is catechizing me about the reality of death. Together with my family and relatives, we go to
cemeteries and pray for our beloved dead. One time, my grandmother made a list of those members of
family who have died. I asked my parents and relatives about their background. This has led me to
discover my own Family Tree. This means that my existence was made possible by means of
mediation. Yes, God has given me life and He gave it to me through others. Tracing our origins
enables us to learn two things: 1) to see our existence as a mystery and just a complexity and 2) to be
grateful for the wonders that God has done to each of us through others. Gratitude is a language of a
heart that is full. Thank God for through the All Souls’ Day we can thank our beloved dead.

Mercy and generosity as balms of healing

Every year, the parishes distribute envelopes in which we can write the names of our beloved
dead and with an amount of money, we offer a Mass for the eternal repose of their souls. There are
two key virtues that we try to develop namely 1) mercy and 2) generosity. Our beloved dead in
purgatory are in need of our prayers. The highest form of prayer and worship, the Holy Eucharist, is
the best gift that we can give to them on this sacred day. By acting as their intercessors, we hold them
in our hearts and entrust them to God. For all their failures, it is our responsibility, as relatives and
friends, to pray for their forgiveness. Aside from prayers and offering a Eucharist, works of mercy,
charity and justice can also be means in which God will grant them eternal rest. It is not too late to
help our beloved in purgatory. Mercy and generosity serve as a balm that heals their brokenness and
that fills their emptiness.

On November 2, we are asked to celebrate the All Souls’ Day not just as a mere ritual. By
singing and dancing with our beloved dead, we cry out to the living God, “Lord, this is the people that
longs to see Your face!” Remembering is not just an art of recalling; it is the power to love beyond
borders.