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Dearly beloved Father,
A question worries me: how does the suffrage of the deceased work if the soul of the dead person is immediately judged?
From what I know, when a person dies, his soul separates from the body and immediately appears before God to receive a first judgment that is: heaven, purgatory or hell.At the end of time, with the return of Christ, the bodies will also be resurrected and will join the soul where it is (second judgment).
But if that’s the case, if the first judgment occurs immediately upon death, how can prayers, Masses and works of charity, which necessarily cannot be done “at the zero instant” in which the person dies, avoid damnation? The point being, that all these works take place when the first judgment has already been made, that is, at the moment of death.
I hope I have managed to explain myself. Thank you and best regards
Ettore C.


Answer from the priest

Dear Ettore, 
1. our prayers benefit the deceased only if they are in purgatory or heaven.

2. They benefit those who are in purgatory because they are holy souls, even if they are in purification.
Precisely because they are holy, they are in God’s grace.

And then by virtue of the charity that makes us one body, we can help each other in the same way in which the benefit of a part of our body benefits the whole organism.

3. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church we read: “This teaching is also based on the practice of prayer for the dead, already mentioned in Sacred Scripture: “Therefore Judas Maccabeus made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin.” From the beginning, the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God. The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead:” (CCC 1032).

4. Immediately afterwards a beautiful statement by Saint John Chrysostom is reported: “Let us help and commemorate them. If Job’s sons were purified by their father’s sacrifice (cfr. Gb 1,5), why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them” (St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on first Corinthians, 41, 5).

5. The same Catholic Catechism adds: “Our prayer for them is capable not only of helping them, but also of making their intercession for us effective.” (CCC 958).

6. If this is true for the souls in Purgatory, how much more is it true for those who are in paradise: our prayer for them opens a passage in heaven and makes their intercession effective on our behalf.

Is this not beautiful?

 7. Therefore we can also benefit those who are in heaven by increasing their accidental glory, as the theologians say.
If the essential glory consists in knowing, loving and possessing God definitively (this glory cannot increase or decrease), the accidental glory consists in giving them the possibility and joy of dispensing graces from heaven. Their accidental glory can grow until the moment of last judgment.

By recommending ourselves to their intercession we do good to ourselves and we do it to them too!

I bless you, I wish you all good things, and I keep you in my prayers.
Father Angelo