Clean Me Up, Lord

Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed 2025

One of the important concepts that our culture has lost over the past hundred years is that of an “intergenerational covenant.” We see it peeking through from time to time in the headlines, most recently in terms of our multi-trillion-dollar national debt. Our leaders admit that when we spend more than we collect, we are pushing responsibility for repayment of the resulting loans off to children, grandchildren, even great grandchildren. We may feel a little guilty for a short time, and then we do it again.

Part of that debt is to the Social Security trust fund. Social Security itself is a promise that we made to working people. They pay a tax on their earned income and it’s used to fund payments to the elderly retired and to disabled workers. It represents a kind of intergenerational covenant also. It is in trouble because the older generations in society have raised fewer children than their parents and grandparents, and so there are not enough workers paying taxes to support all those getting checks.

What does that have to do with today’s commemoration? Up until the sixteenth century there was widespread prayer for Christians who had died, mostly by their descendants. We see evidence of this going on in the Scriptures, particularly the later OT writings like Wisdom and 2 Maccabees, and in the Book of Revelation. But there are tombs and funerary inscriptions all over Europe. When Christians died, they left instructions to pray for them and even endowed convents and monasteries so that those prayers would continue even after their children stopped praying.

The reason for this was clear, especially in cultures like 14th and 15th century Europe, when global cooling had shrunk the growing season and reduced the nutrition of the living. Disease was rampant. The Black Plague, for instance, killed between a third and a half of the population in many places. That disease would strike, develop and kill a person within three days. So when alive, many Christians would arrange for prayers so that if they died in the state of grace, with little or venial sins unconfessed, or minor habits of sin, their time of purification would be reduced after they died.

Rarely do I find myself in a state of pure soul. The just person sins seven times a day. They may not turn us completely away from God, but don’t we often find ourself focused on our own needs and desires more than on praise of God and help of neighbor?

When the Protestant revolt broke out in the sixteenth century, and some of the reformers preached against indulgences given by the Church for good works performed, leaders began to question the practice of endowing religious institutions for post-death prayers. In England, for instance, King Henry VIII and his henchmen closed many convents and monastic institutions and enriched their coffers by selling off the properties. So the prayers of the monks and nuns ceased.

We must understand that if we die in the state of unrepented mortal sin, the state of turning our backs entirely against God’s love and offending Him and hurting our neighbor, no amount of prayer can release us from the grip of the Devil. That’s the wrath that Jesus, Son of God and son of Mary, lived, died, rose from death and ascended into heaven to free us from. But if we are not fully attuned to God’s love and law, and die in that state, we must understand that with soiled souls we can’t enter the presence of the all-Holy Lord. Even C.S. Lewis, an evangelical Protestant, hoped to be cleaned up on his death in 1963. As we commemorate all Christians who have died and are not yet enjoying the Beatific Vision, we look forward to our own passage from this life and our hope that we can quickly be cleansed and admitted to the divine presence.

That is why our psalm today, surely the most beloved of Christians throughout the ages, envisions the Lord Jesus as the Good Shepherd. It’s a perfect analogy to the human flock in this life. You probably know that sheep and goats are just about the dumbest mammals on earth. Like us, they need to stay close to a protective shepherd, who will ward off predators and find clean water to drink and pastures without poisonous weeds. That’s what Jesus and His guard dog angels do for us, directing us to right paths and through the valley of the shadow of death. The table spread before us frequently is the Holy Eucharist. The oil that anoints us is the sacrament of the sick. We fear no evil for Christ is with us.

As St. Paul teaches just before the passage we heard, through our faith in Christ’s saving action we stand in grace. We also glory in our sufferings because through it we learn perseverance, grow in good character, and are filled with the hope we heard about. That hope cannot disappoint us in death or life, because through it we feel the charity of God poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit’s action. We cannot say it or hear it enough: Christ died for us helpless humans, even though we were in sin. While we were sinners He gave up His life for us, and in His Resurrection He gave us forgiveness and the grace we need to be remade in His image. We were God’s enemies, but through faith and participation in the sacraments of the Church, we were reconciled to Him.