November, allegiance to God is stronger than death, the Pope says
Vatican City (AsiaNews) Affection and prayers for the departed rest on faith in the resurrection, on the certainty that God is faithful to Man in ways that "even death cannot break".
In today's Angelus, before thousands of pilgrims gathered in St Peter's Square under a rainy sky, the Pope spoke about the traditions of remembrance devoted to the dearly departed that are celebrated in the month of November.
John Paul II emphasised how the Eucharist commemorating the departed is a celebration of the pact of love sealed in Christ's pascha.
At the end, he greeted pilgrims from Africa and prayed for Africa and the Ivory Coast.
Yesterday, Ivorian planes hit French troops in Abidjan provoking a French retaliatory strike in which several Ivorian planes were in turn hit. The government of the Ivory Coast accuses the French of killing about 30 unarmed civilians.
Here are the Pope's remarks introducing the Marian prayer:
"Popular piety devotes the month of November to the remembrance of the departed faithful. Let us pray for them confident in the knowledge that, as Jesus says in today's Gospel, "he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive" (Lk 20, 38). In truth, He remains faithful to the alliance struck with Man, alliance that death itself cannot break.
This pact, which was sealed with Christ's pascha, is constantly renewed in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. And it is in this that praying for the dead reaches its highest point. In making offerings, believers support the final purification. Approaching the Communion with faith, they strengthen their ties of spiritual love with the departed.
Most Holy Mary intercede from Heaven for all our dearly departed and strengthen in us, who are pilgrims on this earth, the faith in the final resurrection for which the Sacrament of the Eucharist is a pledge.
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