"In praying for the dead, the Church above all contemplates ..."

... the mystery of the Resurrection of Christ, who obtains salvation and eternal life for us through his Cross. Thus with St Odilo we can ceaselessly repeat: "The Cross is my refuge, my way and my life The Cross is my invincible weapon. The Cross repels all evil. The Cross dispels the darkness". The Lord's Cross reminds us that all life is illumined by the light of Easter and that no situation is totally lost, for Christ conquered death and opened the way for us to true life. Redemption "is brought about in the sacrifice of Christ, by which man redeems the debt of sin and is reconciled to God" (Tertio millennio adveniente, n. 7).

3. Our hope is founded on Christ's sacrifice. His Resurrection inaugurates the "end of the times" (1 Pt 1:20; cf. Heb 1:2). The belief in eternal life which we profess in the Creed is an invitation to the joyful hope of seeing God face to face. To believe in the resurrection of the flesh is to recognize that there is a final end, an ultimate goal for all human life, "which so satisfies man's appetite that nothing else is left for him to desire" (Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I-II, q. 1, a. 5; St Paulinus of Nola, Letters, 1, 2). This same desire is wonderfully expressed by St Augustine: "You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you" (Confessions, I, 1). Thus, we are all called to live with Christ, seated at the right hand of the Father, and to contemplate the Holy Trinity, for "God is the principal object of Christian hope" (Alphonsus Liguori, Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ, 16, 2); we can say with Job: "I know that my Redeemer lives, and at last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then from my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold and not another" (Jb 19:25-27). ...

5. Contemplation of the lives of those who have followed Christ encourages us to lead a good, upright Christian life which makes us "worthy of the kingdom of God" (2 Thes 1:5). Thus we are called to "supernatural vigilance", in the words of Cardinal Perraud (Lettre à l'occasion du neuvième centenaire de la fête pour les morts), so that we can prepare ourselves each day for eternal life. As Cardinal John Henry Newman emphasized: "We are not simply to believe, but to watch; not simply to love, but to watch; not simply to obey, but to watch; ... and thus it happens that watching is a suitable test of a Christian". This is because to watch is "to be detached from what is present, and to live in what is unseen; to live in the thought of Christ as he came once, and as he will come again; to desire his second coming" (Parochial and Plain Sermons, IV, 22).

6. The prayers of intercession and petition which the Church never ceases to raise to God have great value. They are "characteristic of a heart attuned to God's mercy" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2635). The Lord always lets himself be moved by his children's supplications, for he is the God of the living. During the Eucharist, through the general intercessions and the Memento for the dead, the assembled community presents to the Father of all mercies those who have died, so that through the trial of purgatory they will be purified, if necessary, and attain eternal joy. In entrusting them to the Lord, we recognize our solidarity with them and share in their salvation in this wondrous mystery of the communion of saints. The Church believes that the souls detained in purgatory "are helped by the prayers of the faithful and most of all by the acceptable sacrifice of the altar" (Council of Trent, Decree on Purgatory), as well as by "alms and other works of piety" (Eugene IV, Bull Laetantur coeli). "In fact, that same holiness, which is derived simply from their participation in the Church's holiness, represents their first and fundamental contribution to the holiness of the Church herself, which is the 'communion of saints'" (Christifideles laici, n. 17).

— From "Letter of His Holiness Pope John Paul II for the Celebration of the Millennium of the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed", 1998.