It's All Completely Biblical: Prayers/Suffrages for the Dead in Scripture (plus its relation to purgatory)

Here the Scriptures plainly state that prayers and afflictions for the dead were common. They were seen as part of the process of mourning, as still the Jews do to this day. Now what will such prayers do for the dead if they were in heaven or hell? The only thing prayer for the dead might accomplish is moving them closer to heaven and out of some state preceding it; we call it purgatory. So our charity does not extend only to the living, but we also may pray for the dead, whom Christ loves, whom He wants to bring fully into His sanctity.

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These are explicit Biblical examples of prayers/suffrages offered for the dead

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2nd Timothy 1:

16 May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiph'orus, for he often refreshed me; he was not ashamed of my chains,

17 but when he arrived in Rome he searched for me eagerly and found me --

18 may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that Day -- and you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesus.

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Argument:

Onesiphorus, if he was not dead already, was going to be dead at his Judgment. Thus for Paul to ask that mercy be shown him at Judgment, is the same thing as asking that God show mercy to the dead. Is it not beyond question to you that Paul's kindness is magnified in this? He wishes that God might "grant him...mercy...on that Day," words which establish that we may pray to God that He might, even after a man's death, show him mercy.

If, then, we may ask God be merciful to the dead, then it is holy and pious to pray for the dead. This, however, means that they may be helped by us: what could our prayers do for them? Suppose that, God forbid, Onesiphorus was to be judged worthy of hell -- what would Paul's wish do for him? Would God give the man's soul over to eternal pain of some lesser degree? Perhaps, but that is still eternal torment. And how far could this be taken? Might Onesiphorus receive enough prayers and libations, that the degree of his torment should become so far reduced? No, it may never be -- for the place of torment for men is settled: "Their graves are appointed in the uttermost parts of the pit. ... And they shall not sleep with the brave." (Ezekiel 32:23, 27) Paul's prayer cannot transport him out of hell, and it cannot alleviate his torment there. So such a prayer would be powerless, not pious, if it was made for a man who was to be delivered to hell -- in death, there is no repentance.

Are prayers holy, then, only for the dead who are going to go to heaven? Well certainly, for we just ruled out the other option! But these souls must not be in heaven yet, and I arrive at this conclusion for two reasons. First, because if these souls already possessed the infinite beatitude, then what would prayers for them accomplish? Would they be offered in vain, or in virtue? And my second reason is this: a dead man's soul must not be in heaven yet, if a prayer is to be effectual for him, because the prayers must first help to "deliver [him] of [his] sins" (2 Maccabees 12:45).

It follows, then, that our prayers for the dead are powerful only for the dead who are imprisoned by sin, indeed, but who shall not be imprisoned eternally since, as we just said, they are going to go to heaven in the end. There is a prison, then, that holds men temporarily while their sins are expiated, and all of this is what Catholics describe as a purgatory. It is drawn straight out of the fact of prayers for the dead in Scripture.

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These are explicit Biblical examples of prayers/suffrages offered for the dead

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2nd Samuel 1:

12 They mourned and wept, and fasted until evening for Saul and for Jonathan his son and for the people of the LORD and for the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.

1st Samuel 31:

And they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.

2nd Samuel 3:

34 "Your hands were not bound," [cried out King David,] "your feet were not fettered; as one falls before the wicked you have fallen!" ...

35 Then all the people came to persuade David to eat bread while it was yet day; but David swore, saying, "God do so to me and more also, if I taste bread or anything else till the sun goes down!"

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Argument:

Can you imagine fasting seven days for the fallen warriors! Such immense suffrages brought about by equally pronounced sorrow for the dead -- this is the data that appears to us in Scripture. Their fasting on behalf of the dead is accompanied, no less, by lamentations, which also arise for them to God. So when we see this, are we to take them as vain offerings, or are we to admit that the dead can be helped by our actions on earth?

Take on its face the tears of King David so grieved for his friend. What dedication to his fast that he refused all consolation and nourishment in his affliction! And should we say that this devotion to his friend was all vain, or at best misguided, and unable to aid dear Abner in his grave? God forbid that we should make such an innocent fool of King David, who "never in all his life went against [God's] orders, [except] in the question of Uriah the Hittite!" (1 Kings 15:5)

Why, then, are there so many examples in Scripture of praying and suffering for the dead? It is expiation -- for if we suffer on their behalf in this life, by fasting and sackcloth, then they have that much less suffering to undergo in purgatory. How blessed the thought that we can help them so greatly, how blessed the thought that kindness does not stop at death. Alleluia.

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These are explicit Biblical examples of prayers/suffrages offered for the dead

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2nd Maccabees 12:

43 [Judas Maccabeus] also took up a collection, man by man, to the amount of two thousand drachmas of silver, and sent it to Jerusalem to provide for a sin offering. In doing this he acted very well and honorably, taking account of the resurrection.

44 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.

45 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, that they might be delivered from their sin.

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Argument:

Again, Scripture reflects the importance that we should attach to praying for the dead, which is called "a holy and pious thought" -- not vain or powerless. Do you notice that the alms which he collected were sent to Jerusalem? Evidently a departed soul could be remembered there during the Temple services. Absalom the prince spoke of this in 2 Samuel 18:18, lamenting, "I have no son to keep my name in remembrance." The money that they offered was, perhaps, a stipend for a memorial service, kept even in ancient Jerusalem.

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These are explicit Biblical examples of prayers/suffrages offered for the dead

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Jeremiah 16:

5 For thus says the LORD: ... Both great and small shall die in this land; they shall not be buried, and no one shall lament for them or cut himself or make himself bald for them.

6 No one shall break bread for the mourner, to comfort him for the dead;

7 nor shall one give him the cup of consolation to drink for his father or mother. ...

10 "Why has the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us?" [cried the nation of Israel.]

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Argument:

So greatly does God, in His mercy, desire us to pray and make suffrages for the dead, that He regards it as a curse upon the land if we forget to remember them by some sacrifice. Therefore it is evil to forget the dead, and great evil to neglect them for the sake of our own selfish comfort. No one says that we must cut ourselves for them or sin; but what instruction are we to glean from so many of these Scriptures, unless God wants us to make some kind of self-sacrifice for them? And whether that is to sacrifice our time by giving ourselves over to prayer, or to sacrifice our times of contentment by fasting, either way is a means of helping the dead. Well, they can't be helped in hell, and they need no help in heaven: so our prayers shall help them through purgatory, if we are only generous enough to follow God's will and pray for them.

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These are explicit Biblical examples of prayers/suffrages offered for the dead

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Leviticus 21:

1 ... Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them that none of them shall defile himself for the dead among his people,

2 except for his nearest of kin, his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother,

3 or his virgin sister (who is near to him because she has had no husband; for her he may defile himself).

4 He shall not defile himself as a husband among his people and so profane himself.

5 They shall not make tonsures upon their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuttings in their flesh.

6 They shall be holy to their God, and not profane the name of their God; for they offer the offerings by fire to the LORD, the bread of their God; therefore they shall be holy.

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Argument:

This section describes what was permissible for a priest in mourning over a loved one. The extreme form of self-affliction for the dead referred to in Jeremiah 16:5 is here permitted for priests only when they mourn for a family member; hence, doing penance on behalf of the dead is regulated even by the Torah. Who will say, then, that there is no purgatory? If the faithful who died in those ages needed purification and penances performed for them, still do they need it today, for we are not without sin.

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These are explicit Biblical examples of prayers/suffrages offered for the dead

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Sirach 7:

33 Give graciously to all the living, and withhold not kindness from the dead.

34 Do not fail those who weep, but mourn with those who mourn.

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Argument:

Kindness does not fail at death inside the Catholic Church. Why should it, when the Scriptures show that we may continue in our prayers for them when, having left this life, they have very often not yet attained complete beatitude?

Now I already have some difficulty in understanding a peculiar Protestant concept -- for many Protestants insist that praying for the dead is so wrong, and purgatory (they say) makes such a mockery of the sufficiency of grace, that the Church, which has proclaimed purgatory and which has prayed for the dead in her liturgies for 2000 years, they say, is no institute of God. I confess, I have grave difficulties understanding this most absurd idea of the Reformers. But my difficulties are enlarged by a mountainous scale when we take note of these important facts: one, that praying for the dead was so clearly an ever-present reality in the liturgies of the Jewish religion that they paid to keep it going; and two, that their belief in a fiery purification which God has prepared for their people was felt so deeply in the core of their religion, that they codified this belief into their Scriptures. Yet, in spite of all of this mountain of evidence, the Protestants will still have no trouble confessing that the Jewish Church was a profound institution of God in the Old Testament -- for the Scriptures say so distinctly. What baffles me is this: although the Catholic Church is the only institution which still teaches these doctrines, the Protestants will not extend this conclusion to her.

Dear Protestant, reflect on your heritage's inconsistency: why would you condemn the Church for praying for the dead while you overlook that Israel did the same? Is this attitude not equivalent to subjugating the New Covenant to the Old? Isn't it undesirable, and worse, unbiblical, to say that the Church must not inherit this belief and this practice from the glory days of Jerusalem? And how can you say that the Old Testament was written for our instruction (1 Corinthians 10:11), and refuse to follow the godly example laid down there? But we can offer you a better way: Accept that the Scriptures are clear that there is a purification for the elect, if they die with some sins on their souls; accept that the Church has called this purification by the holy name of purgatory; and accept that in graciousness and mercy, God desires you to pray for the souls who are detained there, that they might be delivered of sin and judgment. Then you will be following the godly example of 2000 years of Christendom, you will be following a 6000 year-old practice of the people of God, and best of all, you will find yourself in obedience to the words of the Scriptures, which clearly set forth the Catholic doctrine, and witness to her Tradition.

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These are explicit Biblical examples of prayers/suffrages offered for the dead

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Tobit 4:

17 Pour out your bread on the burial of the just, but give nothing to the wicked.

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Argument:

This is the language of making an offering in remembrance of the dead. One does not literally pour out bread, but it is a figure for offering generously according to one's means. Pouring out one's bread, then, is offering something for a dead man, presumably to help him out of his state. He couldn't be helped, however, if he was in hell, and he would be in optimal condition if he was in heaven. The only solution is that there is some other state from which a man may be delivered by prayers and alms. This state, which is drawn from such texts as these, we call purgatory, and it is as firmly in Scripture as anything else which has ever been taught by Christianity.

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