Refusing to Pray for the FAITHFUL Departed (Biblical or Not)

PURPOSE:

  1.  If you believe that prayers for the living are a help to them, why should you not pray for the dead? Death is not the end but a stage in the destiny of man, and this destiny is not petrified at the moment of death. The love which our prayer expresses cannot be in vain; if love had power on earth and had no power after death it would tragically contradict the word of scripture that love is as strong as death and the experience of the Church that love is more powerful than death, because Christ has defeated death in his love for mankind.

  2. This act of remembrance keeps the departed alive in our memories, their names, their deeds; their lives serve as models of Christian living. No one is forgotten in the kingdom of God.

  3. These acts teach us about the importance of the life in Christ and to always prepare for the eventual reality of our deaths.

BIBLICAL BASIS (prayers for the departed):

  1. Its base can be traced to the faith of the Israelites. The fact that the Israelites used to pray for and offer sacrifices for their dead is mentioned in the second book of Maccabees. "....and they turned to supplication, praying that the sin that had been committed might be wholly blotted out" (2 Mac.12: 39-45). This is a clear pointer to the faith of the Jews, to the fact that the sins of the dead can be blotted out through prayers and supplications. In the 0ld Testament period, prayers for the departed were a common practice. (Dt. 34: 8).

  2. Ruth 2:20 “…..Blessed is the Lord, because he has not caused his kindness to cease from the living nor from the dead.” – God is merciful towards the dead also.

  3. In James 5:16 we read: "Pray for one another... The prayer of a righteous man has great power." Is this prayer only for the living? Given that death does not disrupt the unity of Christ's body, that is, those of us still struggling in this world and those who have already received their reward in the next, the answer is "No."

  4. In Matthew's Gospel we read, "Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come." (Matthew 12:32) This means that sins can be forgiven in the age to come - after death.

  5. 1 Cor. 15:29 – The living received baptism for the dead.

  6. 2 Cor. 5:9 “This is why we are confident, and anxious to be absent from the body, and to be present with our Lord. Wherefore we endeavor, that whether present or absent, we may be pleasing to him.” – One can be acceptable to God even after death.

  7. 1 Peter 4:6 “For, for this cause the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, and live according to God in spirit.”

  8. It is most appropriate to pray for God’s mercy for our beloved, as indeed St. Paul did in the case of his friend Onesiphorus, who had apparently died while serving Paul in Rome: “may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that Day” (2 Timothy 1:16-18). "That day" is a reference to the day when Onesiphorus stands before Christ to give account for his service to God and mankind. So we can always pray for the departed and ask our Lord to grant them mercy on the day of judgment.

Our memorial prayers also remind us of our own eventual death and our responsibility to prepare for it and to be ready for it. Trusting that God in His mercy will hear our supplications, we offer up prayers for our beloved dead. Love demands that we pray for them and leave the result to Him.