All Souls Day
Wis 3: 1-9; Rom 8:31b-35, 37-39; Jn 6:37-40
Deacon Larry Brockman
Today, we celebrate the Feast of all the faithful departed. All of us have close relatives and friends who we hope are in that category. All of us hope that we will be in that category. Tonight at 7 PM, we have a special Mass in memory of all those who have died in the last year. But most of us have loved ones who have passed away over the years- our Moms and Dads, Grandparents, close friends, and many children. We remember them all now on All Souls Day; our hope and expectation is that they all are heirs to the promise in today’s scriptures.
And just what is that? Well, Solomon said: The souls of the righteous are in the hands of God. The righteous are in the hands of God! What better hands to be in than God’s. Now “righteous” means those who are right with God- they are those who believed in him and lived lives in accordance with his will. And most of us try to do that- live the lives in which God placed us; using the talents God gave us; and accepting the limitations that God gave us. We are mostly moms and dads and students and breadwinners and soccer coaches and lots of mundane things. And so were our loved ones who preceded us.
We may have started out life thinking we would conquer the world. The world was our oyster, so to speak. But sometime during our life, we become aware of our own limitations. We weren’t going to conquer the world. And we realized that self-indulgence has its limits and doesn’t bring true happiness. It is then that we came to understand the wisdom of the beatitudes that we heard proclaimed yesterday. Indeed, all of us need to learn the lesson of humility and deferring to others. God is in control, and we need to recognize that and turn over our trust to his wisdom, to his will. His will is that we love one another as ourselves.
God gives all of us a lifetime to find him and his will in this way. For many of us that is 70, 80, or more years. Thank God for all that time! Others have less time. But in that time, whatever it is, all of us were “chastised a little”, and yet hopefully that really means that we were “greatly blessed” Because God tried” us and found us “worthy of himself”.
Paul tells the Romans that God did not spare his own Son Jesus from suffering. Rather, Jesus paved the way for all of us by bearing his suffering with dignity; submitting to the will of the Father at the hands of evil men. But he conquered death by his Resurrection and Ascension to heaven. What became of those who put him to death after their worldly lives?
Indeed, Jesus’ Kingdom is not of this world. Ultimately, all of us will also come to the realization that life in this world is not what life is all about either; no matter how wonderful things seem at the prime of life. As we review the lives of our loved ones who have already passed away, we can see that this was definitely the case for them! And so, it is our hope that something more will be there for them- the everlasting life in the Kingdom of God that Jesus paved the way to. Indeed, that is our Christian hope as well.
Now Jesus made it very clear in our Gospel that his mission on earth was to save all that God gave him; and that is all of us and all of our loved ones who are already departed. He says that it is the Father’s will that all who “see the son and believe in him may have eternal life”; and that “I will not reject anyone who comes to me”. So, the key is for us to believe and to honestly do the will of God; to love one another and to always seek the Lord no matter what the hardship.
Paul tells the Romans something very profound: He says: “What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us”. Yes, God loves us- all of us, unconditionally. After all, he created us and desperately wants us with Him. Why would he create us and not want to have his creation with him? But, we must believe in him, endure the trials of this life, defer to one another, and then come after him. And “Coming after him” means seeking the Kingdom of God, not seeking after our own will.
And so, on this great Feast of All Souls. Let us rejoice over the great multitude of souls who have done just that- our moms and dads and grandparents and children and friends who loved us. Many of them accepted the challenges and hardships of life with dignity and grace- raising us, educating us, defending us in battle, giving to us from their sustenance- only to suffer illnesses or infirmities in their old age or even some sudden death. But make no mistake about it. The souls of these righteous ones are in the hands of God.
