“Never think, my dearest daughter, that distance of place can ever separate souls which God has united by the ties of His love.” - St. Francis de Sales
I write for All Souls,
All souls in my mind and heart, and even mine!
While an eye I keep on a candle simply burning;
Its light, its warmth, a gift this chilly morning.
Is this my future healing;
My soul ten thousand times refined,
By light, by warmth restored, from cold to warm?
My selfishness undone by tens millions candles burning?
Or is it God’s fulsome hug; the lavish flames of warming love
That prepares my heart for mercy?
I found nothing in St. Francis de Sales’ writings about All Souls Day; much about God’s providential mercy. When he writes about the dead, he serves the living… no consideration of our beloved dead can fail, ultimately, but to refresh faith in God’s loving will and prepare us to know God’s mercy.
Yet, with Paul and Jesus evoking a rigorous moral life against an apocalyptic background, Catholic tradition evolved to meet questions about how those would fare who died retaining character defects. Thus, Medieval Christians embraced purgatory as a practical way to describe this ‘place’ where God would perfect the imperfect.
Today the Church doesn’t think of purgatory as a place but as final purification – an event. So, now we pray for those who enter this extraordinary, healing, completing event that brings us at last, no longer burdened by shortcomings, to God’s table. Thus…
All Souls Day evolved as third in a triduum once called Allhallowtide, including “All Hallows’ Eve” and All Saints Day, during which we entrust the dead to God’s mercy. The season culminates when Jesus, King of the Universe, gathers and judges “all nations” at His second coming. In a practical way St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane de Chantal teach us about this season, the pain of death, and how, on the other hand, it can nourish faith. It was during a tough season early in their enduring friendship – Allhallowtide 1607.
Jeanne de Sales, Francis’ 14-year-old sister, entrusted to Jane while attending school in France. contracted an enteric fever and died in Jane’s care on October 7, 1607. Jane sent news to Savoy while she, having washed and prepared Jeanne’s body for burial, sat with the dead girl in epic remorse.
On All Souls Day, Francis wrote a moving letter to Jane, kindly relaying his family’s support for her but with the focus on restoring her commitment to the mercy found in God’s will: “…I am as human as I can be; my heart was grieved more than I should ever have thought… But as for the rest, vive Jesus… Let God gather what he has planted in His orchard: He takes everything in its season.” (F. de Sales, In Thy Will be Done)
He turns his thoughts to Jane who volunteered to ‘replace’ Jeanne with one of her children or perhaps herself. Gently explaining ‘replacement’ as inappropriate, he encourages her to return her “vigorous heart’s” attention to God’s will: “Without reserve, without if, without but, without exception, without limitation, [God’s] will be done, in father, in mother, and daughter, in all and everywhere!” Of course, “we shall beseech God here for this soul, and will properly do its little honors…” (DeSales, 1995)
The ‘will of God’ can sound trite in death, yet in the Salesian mind the focus is not on the execution of an indifferent Divine Will, but in God’s will being the conduit for His completing mercies, even in death. Nothing in Francis and Jane’s situation during Allhallowtide 1607 could make a beautiful teenager’s death easy. But their prayers for her in the context of their assertion of God’s invincible will set conditions for irresistible faith lived well and devoutly.
Fr. Mark Plaushin, OSFS
Love. Learn. Serve. Charlie Mike
