2 November 2026 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malankara Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live.” John 11:25
Today the whole Church prays for the faithful departed. We do it not out of sentiment alone but out of faith: we believe in the resurrection of the body, and we believe in the communion of saints, in which the living and the dead remain one family in Christ.
Ezekiel stands in a valley of dry bones. “Can these bones live?” God answers by his word and his Spirit: “I will open your graves… I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live.” What seemed final is not final for God. Judas Maccabeus, finding that fallen soldiers had worn idols, prays and offers a sacrifice for them, “so that they might be delivered from their sin”. Scripture calls it “a holy and pious thought”. Here the Church finds an ancient witness to prayer for the dead.
The Catholic faith teaches that those who die in God's grace but are not yet fully purified undergo a purification after death, which the Church calls purgatory, so as to enter the joy of heaven (Catechism 1030–1032). Our prayers, and above all the Holy Qurbana offered for them, help them. This is love that death does not end.
At Bethany, Martha meets Jesus with grief and faith: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Jesus answers not with an explanation but with himself: “I am the resurrection and the life.” Christian hope is not an idea about the afterlife; it is a Person who has conquered death. With Paul we can say: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
Theme: “Love that death does not end.”
On the Commemoration of the Dead we pray for the faithful departed, confessing the resurrection of the body and the communion of saints.
“And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live.” Ezekiel 37:13–14
“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live.”” John 11:25
Apply: Bring one hopeless situation to God in prayer this week.
“But if he was looking to the splendid reward that is laid up for those who fall asleep in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Therefore he made atonement for the dead, so that they might be delivered from their sin.” 2 Maccabees 12:45
“So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” John 16:22
Apply: Have a Qurbana offered for the souls in purgatory this month.
“But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment will ever touch them.” Wisdom 3:1
“And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:26
Apply: Visit the cemetery with your family and pray there.
Our grief is real; our hope is greater, because it is Christ himself.
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.
Take-home resolution: Pray for your departed by name every evening in November.
Dear brothers and sisters, today we come to the altar carrying names: parents, grandparents, a spouse, a child, a friend. We remember them with tears, but not without hope.
Ezekiel stood in a valley full of dry bones. God asked him, “Can these bones live?” Humanly the answer is no. But God spoke his word and sent his Spirit, and the bones stood up alive. For God, death is not the last word.
In the second reading Judas Maccabeus prays and offers sacrifice for soldiers who had died in sin. Scripture calls it a holy and pious thought. The Church has always prayed for the dead. Those who die in God's friendship but are not yet fully purified are helped by our prayers and above all by the Holy Qurbana.
At Bethany Martha says to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” How many of us have said the same. Jesus does not give a lecture; he gives himself: “I am the resurrection and the life.” Then he asks her, and he asks us: “Do you believe this?”
Today let us answer with Martha: “Yes, Lord, I believe.” And let our love for our dead become prayer. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. Amen.
Children, do you remember someone in your family who has died?
Jesus told Martha: I am the resurrection and the life. He loves our grandparents and everyone who has died, and he will raise them up.
Some of them may still need our prayers to be fully ready for heaven. We can help them by praying.
Every night this month, let us say together: Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.
Lord Jesus, resurrection and life, grant to our departed brothers and sisters eternal rest. Purify them in your mercy, bring them into the light of your face, and keep us in the hope of meeting them again in your Kingdom. Amen.
On the first Monday of Qudash Edtha the Church keeps the commemoration of all the faithful departed. The season looks at the Church as God's house, and today we remember that this house has rooms beyond the grave: the Church on earth, the Church being purified, and the Church in glory are one family (CCC 954). The four readings move from a valley of dry bones to an open tomb. In Ezekiel, God's breath raises a dead people. In 2 Maccabees, Judas prays and offers sacrifice for fallen soldiers, "taking account of the resurrection". In 1 Corinthians, Paul sings that death is swallowed up in victory. In John, Jesus tells Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life." The key words are breath, prayer, victory and life.
Setting.
Ezekiel was a priest who was taken to Babylon with the first group of exiles in 597 BC (1:1–3). When Jerusalem and the Temple fell in 587 BC, the exiles felt that their story was over. They said, "Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost" (37:11). From chapter 33 the book turns from judgment to hope: God promises a new heart and a new spirit (36:26–27), then gives this vision, and finally shows the prophet a new Temple (chapters 40–48).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.”” (37:3)
The prophet does not say yes, because the bones are very dry. He does not say no, because he is speaking to God. His answer is the beginning of faith: what is impossible for us is known to God.
“I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.” (37:10)
The word of God, spoken by a man, brings life. This is a picture of preaching in the Church: the minister speaks, but the life comes from the breath of God.
“I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil” (37:14)
In its first meaning the vision promises the return of the exiles to their land (v. 12). But the image of graves opened by God prepares the clear faith in the resurrection of the body found later in Daniel 12:2 and in 2 Maccabees 7.
How the Church reads it.
St Irenaeus, in Against Heresies, and Tertullian, in On the Resurrection of the Flesh, read this vision as a promise that God will raise our bodies (in substance). The Catechism teaches that God revealed the resurrection of the dead to his people step by step (CCC 992), and that the righteous will live for ever with the risen Christ (CCC 989). The Roman Rite reads this passage at the Vigil of Pentecost, because the breath of Ezekiel is fulfilled in the Holy Spirit, whom the Creed calls "the Lord, the giver of life".
Setting.
2 Maccabees tells of the Jewish struggle for faith under the Syrian king Antiochus IV Epiphanes and of the revolt led by Judas Maccabeus (about 167–160 BC). The author says that his book is a summary of a five-volume history by Jason of Cyrene (2:23). It was written in Greek and belongs to the books which the Church received with the Greek Old Testament, called deuterocanonical. The Council of Trent confirmed them as part of Holy Scripture.
After a battle against Gorgias, the governor of Idumea (12:32–37), Judas goes back to bury his fallen soldiers.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“and they turned to supplication, praying that the sin that had been committed might be wholly blotted out.” (12:42)
The soldiers had died in a serious fault, yet they had died fighting for God's people. Judas does not judge their souls. He leaves them to "the righteous judge, who reveals the things that are hidden" (v. 41), and he prays.
“For if he were not expecting that those who had fallen would rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead.” (12:44)
The author's logic is simple: we pray for the dead because they are not lost. Prayer for the dead is an act of faith in the resurrection.
“Therefore he made atonement for the dead, so that they might be delivered from their sin.” (12:45)
Some Bibles, including the Latin Vulgate, number this sentence as 12:46. It is the text the Catechism cites when it teaches about the final purification.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism quotes this passage when it speaks of purgatory, the final purification of those who die in God's grace and friendship but are still imperfectly purified (CCC 1030–1032). It teaches that from the beginning the Church has honoured the memory of the dead and offered prayers for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice (CCC 1032). St Augustine tells in his Confessions that his mother Monica, as she was dying, asked only one thing: to be remembered at the altar of the Lord wherever her sons might be (in substance).
Setting.
1 Corinthians 15 is the longest New Testament chapter on the resurrection. Some in Corinth were saying "there is no resurrection of the dead" (15:12). Paul answers by recalling the creed he received, that Christ died, was buried and was raised (15:3–5). Christ is "the first fruits of those who have died" (15:20). Then Paul explains what the risen body is like: a seed is sown perishable and raised imperishable (15:42–44). Today's verses are the climax of the chapter.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.” (15:51–52)
A note on the text. The Greek says literally "we will not all sleep", the gentle Christian word for death. The ancient manuscripts differ a little here, and the Latin Vulgate reads "we shall all rise again, but we shall not all be changed". The NRSV and the Malayalam POC follow the reading of most Greek manuscripts. Paul means that those still alive at the Lord's coming will be changed without dying.
““Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”” (15:54–55)
Isaiah 25:8 promised that on God's mountain he "will swallow up death forever". Hosea 13:14 was a cry of judgment; Paul turns it into a song of mockery against a defeated enemy.
“Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” (15:58)
The great chapter on the resurrection ends not with a dream but with work. Because the dead will rise, nothing done for the Lord is wasted.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism follows Paul closely when it asks how the dead rise: the body will be raised incorruptible, and the "how" goes beyond our imagination and is open only to faith (CCC 999–1001). This passage is often read at Christian funerals. It tells mourners that the body laid in the grave is like a seed, and that the last word belongs to the God who gives the victory.
Setting.
The raising of Lazarus is the last and greatest of the signs in the first half of John's Gospel. It leads straight to the council's decision to put Jesus to death (11:45–53): the gift of life to Lazarus costs Jesus his own life. Bethany lay on the Mount of Olives, about three kilometres from Jerusalem ("some two miles", v. 18; POC "fifteen stadia").
Burial took place on the day of death, and mourning lasted seven days, with friends coming to console the family. A later Jewish tradition held that the soul stayed near the body for three days; after four days death was beyond doubt. "The Jews" in v. 19 are friends and neighbours from Judea who come to comfort the sisters; John presents them kindly here.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” (11:21–22)
Martha's words hold sorrow and trust together. She is not afraid to tell the Lord her pain, and she does not stop trusting him. This is the prayer of every grieving Christian.
“I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (11:25–26)
Two promises: the believer who dies will live (the resurrection), and the believer who lives will never die (eternal life, which begins now). Bodily death remains, but it is no longer the end.
“Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” (11:27)
Martha's confession is one of the fullest in the Gospel before Easter, and it is close to the purpose John gives for his whole book: "that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God" (20:31). In Matthew a similar confession is made by Peter (Matthew 16:16).
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism quotes v. 25 when it teaches that Jesus links faith in the resurrection to his own person (CCC 994). St Augustine, preaching on the three dead whom Jesus raised in the Gospels, sees in Lazarus, four days in the tomb, the soul bound by a long habit of sin, and he teaches that even such a soul can be called out by the voice of Christ (in substance). This Gospel is read at many Christian funerals: at the grave the Church repeats Martha's faith.
Is praying for the dead found in the Bible?
Yes. 2 Maccabees 12 praises Judas for praying and offering sacrifice for the dead. Many scholars also think that Onesiphorus, for whom Paul prays in 2 Timothy 1:16–18, had already died. The Church has prayed for the dead from the beginning, above all in the Eucharist (CCC 958, 1032).
What is purgatory? Is it a second chance?
No. Purgatory is not a second chance for those who rejected God. It is the final purification of those who die in God's grace and friendship but are still imperfectly purified, so that they may enter the joy of heaven (CCC 1030–1031). Our prayers help them because we are one body in Christ.
Why is 2 Maccabees missing from some Bibles?
It belongs to the deuterocanonical books, which were read in the Greek Old Testament used by the first Christians. The Catholic and Orthodox Churches receive them as Scripture. Many Protestant Bibles leave them out or print them separately. We can respect our fellow Christians while holding firmly to the canon the Church has received.
The East Syriac tradition remembers the departed in every Holy Qurbana, and gives them a special day, the Friday of the Departed, before Great Lent. Today, in the season of the Dedication of the Church, Syro-Malabar families visit the cemeteries, clean and light the graves, and pray the Oppees for their dead. The readings explain these customs. We light the grave because Christ is the light of the dead; we pray because, like Judas, we believe in the resurrection; and we offer the Holy Qurbana because it is the one sacrifice that joins the living and the dead in Christ.