MEDIUM RARE

All Souls Day today is a commemoration of the rite of passage from death to eternity. Souls are not saints, not the canonized ones anyway, and according to what you may have been taught to believe, souls are a form of energy, which may explain certain ghosts refusing to leave their once earthly homes and habitats.

Not only Christians believe in the afterlife. Buddhists hold to the principle that the dead do not leave their earthly existence until nine days later, after which they go to their eternal reward. What happens during those nine “floating” days has not been sufficiently or even sketchily explained, not during my grandmother’s time and not now.

But why nine days? Nine is the ultimate number spelling The End. Perhaps the dead, specially those who had no time to prepare for their passing, need some earthly time to finish their unfinished business? Otherwise, unfinished business could spell a soul’s restlessness, resulting in hauntings in one form or another. Maybe that’s why Mother Church makes it a point to remind the living to pray for the dead. “They cannot pray for themselves, so we must pray for them,” said my friend the Monsignor.

By praying for the dead we keep their memories alive, just as flowers are an ever-fresh symbol of love and offerings of food (if you’re Chinese and Buddhist) are meant to carry on a cherished tradition. But as a caterer noted, vigils and wakes, like funerals and interments (or inurnments) are now de rigueur for family members and friends to gather and exchange stories and jokes about the dear one now gone. Remember, the first three letters of “funeral” spell f-u-n.

Another friend, may she rest in peace, said St. Joseph, Jesus’ foster father, was the saint to pray to for a good death. But according to another friend, St. Joseph is the one to pray to if you’re looking for a good man to marry. (A good husband and a good death go together?) For Pope Francis, St. Joe is your problem solver.

May I ask the reader to pray for the beatification of Jesuit Bro. Richie Fernando, who gave up his life to save children from a grenade attack in a school in Cambodia in 1996.