John 6:37-40; Wisdom 3:1-9; Romans 6:3-9
In the great feast that we celebrate today, we remember how the Church has encouraged prayers for the faithful departed from its early days. St. Augustine, one of our great Church fathers, commented: “If we had no care for the dead, we would not be in the habit of praying for them.” Out of our Church’s prayers for the dead, today’s feast is traced to a custom started in the influential Benedictine abbey of Cluny, France almost 1,000 years ago, which prayed for the dead on November 2, right after All Saints Day; this practice spread to other monasteries & then to the Roman Catholic Church in general.
We celebrate the feast of All Souls Day as a community of faith, underscoring the frailties, weaknesses, & imperfections we feel as human beings. We strive toward the perfection to which God calls us, but we often don’t hit the mark. Our 1st reading from the book of Wisdom reflects the belief that was common in the ancient world, a belief that many in our secular world still hold today, that our human life ends when our bodies terminate their earthly existence. In our Catholic faith, we’re not afraid to acknowledge that so much remains a mystery to us, that no matter how much we learn about God, there will always be much more for us to learn, so much we don’t completely understand. There is so much about death that remains a mystery.
Yet, the writer of the book of Wisdom assures the faithful: “The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, & no torment will ever touch them.” Death remains a mystery, but we are confident that God is with us both in our earthly life & in our earthly death. In this mystery, we place our trust in God, in his infinite love & mercy. In the spirit that came into us in the waters of our baptism, as we died with Christ in those waters & gained new life through him, we continue to be united with the Body of Christ even after the passing of our earthly bodies. In our reading from his letter to the Romans, Paul focuses on the link between Christ’s death & resurrection & our own baptism, how we enter into the resurrection of the risen Christ.
Yet, the writer of the book of Wisdom assures the faithful: “The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, & no torment will ever touch them.” Death remains a mystery, but we are confident that God is with us both in our earthly life & in our earthly death. In this mystery, we place our trust in God, in his infinite love & mercy. In the spirit that came into us in the waters of our baptism, as we died with Christ in those waters & gained new life through him, we continue to be united with the Body of Christ even after the passing of our earthly bodies. In our reading from his letter to the Romans, Paul focuses on the link between Christ’s death & resurrection & our own baptism, how we enter into the resurrection of the risen Christ.
Even though there is a sense of mystery inherent in our faith, there is also a sense of reality. Our tradition of blessing the graves in Yazoo City & Belzoni in commemoration of All Souls Day is a beautiful ritual that is similar to what I witnessed in Latin America when I was a missionary down there. It is a visual reminder of those loved ones who are no longer here in body but here still with us in spirit, of those who passed down the faith to us. Moreover, the feast of All Souls Day reminds us that it is important for us pray for the souls of the faithful departed, for the souls who are in purgatory who are awaiting their union with God. Likewise, it is a comfort for us to know that the faithful departed help us & pray for through their intercessions as well.
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