he Feast of All Souls, or the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed, is the day on which Masses offered are intended for the benefit of the dead. This particular practice seems to have originated with the monasteries associated with the Cluniac Reform and quickly gained momentum in terms of popular piety. 

The theological reasoning that undergirds the practice of offering Masses for the dead is inextricably linked to the Church’s understanding of purgatory, but perhaps more importantly, to the communion of saints. The reality of the communion of saints means that the dead remain in a relationship with the living, and both can intercede for one another. This prayerful rapport is to the benefit of both. 

The communion of saints also means that the Church is simultaneously a reality of earth and of heaven and the two co-inhere with each other in tangible ways.

Purgatory is presented by the Church as an experience of penance that takes place after death, by which the soul is liberated from the burden of sin so that we might more readily participate in the mystery of heaven.

Words like punishment and purification are frequently used as points of reference for what the soul endures as a result of the experience of Purgatory. 

All this serves to demonstrate the long reach and inevitability of God’s justice. To paraphrase the words of the Lord Jesus, “We will not be delivered until we have paid the last penny.” In other words, we cannot evade the consequences of what we have done and what we have failed to do, and that death does not free us from accepting responsibility for our transgressions. 

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