The second reading for today concludes with: "The last enemy to be destroyed is death." (1 Cor 15: 26) We also know from St Paul that: "For the wages of sin is death." (Rm 6: 23) The process of purgatory is the completion of the process of death that is the poisonous fruit of sin. We cannot come into the presence of God with death at work in us. St John teaches: "... that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true, But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from sin." (1 Jn 1: 5-7) In his mercy God allows for us to have the darkness purged from us so that we may enter fully and joyfully into his light. Our prayers for the dead are part of our fellowship with them in Christ since as Jesus told the Sadducees: "He is God not of the dead, but of the living; you are quite wrong." (Mk 12: 27) Let us continue to pray for our dearly departed and in doing so affirm our faith and hope in the resurrection when we will meet with them again in fulness of joy and light.
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