Sleeping Beauties - New Evangelizers

Yesterday we celebrated the feast of All Souls.

On this day we remember those who have gone before us in death and pray for their quick release from Purgatory. But it also a day for a memento mori where we remember our own death. For all of its macabre trappings, the festival of Halloween at least gets us thinking in this direction. This is not meant to a morbid or maudlin exercise, but one that gives us wisdom. As the Scripture says, “Teach us to count our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart.” (Psalm 90:12).

Death is the destination all of us are headed. The pastor at church told the story about a vacation he had with some brother priests. They heard of a town where there was some good restaurants and recreation so that got in the car and put the address into the GPS. But something was typed out incorrectly, because when the GPS said, “You have arrived at your destination,” they were parked in front of a cemetery. The pastor said to his friends, “Well, it’s not entirely wrong.”

One day we are going to end up in the grave. We do not know how much time will be afforded us. If I live as long as my mother did, I have less than 20 years left on this Earth. But that is no guarantee. I often come to prayer asking God to change me into the man He is calling to me. But if I know that my time is getting short, I will take the task much more seriously. I remember being a student and putting off projects until the last minute. If we were given extra time I would rarely use it to do more work. Instead, I would put the task off even more. But now that I am older and hopefully wiser, I will get to the task at hand before time runs out.

But even that phrase, “time runs out,” is not an entirely accurate description of what lies ahead. Because the grave is not our final stop. And I don’t mean simply the afterlife where our souls go up to heaven. I mean that even our bodies will not permanently rest in the grave.

Pope Leo XIV recently stated, “Christians do not call burial places ‘necropolises’, that is, ‘cities of the dead,’ but ‘cemeteries,’ which literally means ‘sleeping places,’ places where one rests, awaiting the resurrection.”

“Necropolis” is a Greek word that reflects the pre-Christian thought on death. Going into the grave was a final goodbye and the dead were placed in these “cities” because that is where they would permanently reside. No matter how well you fought the battle of life, death was always going to be the final victor. But it was the early Christians who first used koimeterion to describe their burial cites. Instead of being cities where the dead will reside forever, koimeterion (“cemetary”) is closer translation as “dormitory.” The image is that it is a place of rest before you wake up at the dawn of a new day.

What an audacity our Christian ancestors had!

Is there anything in this world that feels more permanent and final than death. CS Lewis once wrote of regarding the death of his wife Joy, “‘There is no death’ or ‘Death doesn’t matter.’ There is death. And whatever is matters. And whatever happens has consequences, and it and they are irrevocable and irreversible. You might as well say that birth doesn’t matter. I look up at the night sky. Is anything more certain than that in all those vast times and spaces, if I were allowed to search them, I should nowhere find her face, her voice, her touch? She died. She is dead. Is the word so difficult to learn?” (CS Lewis, A Grief Observed)

For the pre-Christians, this reality would have been even more pronounced. Life for them would have seemed mostly chaotic and empty pain, followed by the silence of the grave. But the Christians looked at those burial sites and said, “No, this is only the temporary home of the dead.” As St. Paul says “We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, about those who have fallen asleep, so that you may not grieve like the rest, who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose, so too will God, through Jesus, bring with him those who have fallen asleep.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14). Paul is reminding us that death is less like oblivion and more like slumber. Because for everyone reading this, each time you slept you awoke again.

Even Christ Himself hints at this when He raises Jairus’ daughter. When they get to the house and she has died, Jesus says, “Why this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but asleep.” (Mark 5:39). Here, the Lord was pointing to a deeper reality than we could see at the time. Death is not the end. It is slumber.

So as we remember those that have died, let think of them not as gone forever. Instead, let us remember these beautiful souls as the slumber, awaiting the great day of waking.

Let us continue to pray for these Sleeping Beauties.

Copyright 2025, WL Grayson

W.L. Grayson

I am a devoutly Catholic theology teacher who loves a popular culture that often, quite frankly, hates me. I grew up absorbing every movie, TV show, comic book, science fiction novel, etc. I could find. As of today I’ve watched over 2100 movies and tv shows. They take up a huge part of my life. I don’t know that this is a good thing, but it has given me a common vocabulary to draw from in order to illustrate whatever theological point I make in class. I’ve used American Pie the song to explain the Book of Revelation (I’ll post on this some time later) and American Pie the movie to help explain Eucharist (don’t ask). The point is that the popular culture is popular for a reason. It is woven into the fabric of our lives and imaginations, for good or ill. In this blog I will attempt to bring together the things of heaven with the things of earth. Of course this goal may be too lofty for someone like me.