Gospel reflection for the Commemoration of all the Faithful Departed
Nature itself reflects the cycles of life, and thus ancient peoples reflected during time of the year on the end of life, and developed rituals around death and the memory of those whom they had lost since the last autumn. The Church, focusing on the Paschal Mystery, reimagined the earlier cultural rituals as an opportunity to pray for the souls of the faithful departed. We experience the passing of time and of our loved ones with the “sure and certain hope” that as the spring follows the winter, new life follows the end of this mortal existence. We pray for the eternal salvation of all who have died, trusting always in God’s bountiful mercy and love.
We stand always in the threshold between hope and sadness, and this observance of All Soul’s Day heightens that tension. We miss those whom we have loved, and we pray that we may be united with them one day. Given the circumstances of some of their lives, we often carry that unspoken fear that perhaps they are not sharing either now or ever in the kingdom the Lord has prepared for us.
Yet, as Pilgrims of Hope, we trust in the Lord’s never failing mercy, and live in the assurance that the promises Jesus made to his disciples are being fulfilled. Jesus suffered and died on the Cross as the guarantor of our sins and the source of our salvation. In the resurrection Jesus offers us the sign and the hope that life not only does not end in death, but that we will be restored to a life that we cannot truly imagine or fathom in this life.
It is a spiritual benefit to ourselves and to our loved ones, and certainly for those souls who have no one to pray for them, that we do offer Masses and our prayers for them. We believe that our works, our prayers, our sacrifices, and our Mass offerings are indeed efficacious.
Our prayers for the deceased are centered on the hope that the time of their chastisement will come quickly to its end and that they will share in the life promised to them forever. The Book of Wisdom speaks to us of a time of purification from the sins, habits, and attachments that separated us from the love and mercy of God in this life, so that we might be truly worthy to share in eternal life for eternity.
The Gospel we hear for this commemoration calls us to reflect on the meaning of the great miracle of the feeding of the multitude which is the context for the teaching of Jesus here. Jesus speaks of our abiding in him and with him, and that as we are identified with him and belong to him, we can be assured that he will not lose us, nor we him.
Yet, we do not live in the presumption that we are saved already, but that we are being saved. This means that we need to continually nurture our relationship with Jesus through the reception of the Eucharist, and in the celebration of the other sacraments and sacramentals that serve to strengthen us and sustain our relationship with him.
We pray then that we remain faithful, that our loved ones remain faithful, and truly for all people to be brought to the knowledge and love of God and his mercy. We pray in a special way that those who have fallen in their journey, will be brought back up and renew their relationship with the Lord.
The passing of time and the frailty of life is a constant reminder to us of our need to have a right relationship with the Lord. All Soul’s Day offers us the hope that even in the midst of sin and darkness, that eternal life sharing in the kingdom is God’s deepest desire for us, and that nothing can separate us from his love and mercy, unless we willfully choose to deny and reject that mercy, even with the final breath of this life.
Remember each and every day to pray for all of the faithful departed, and pray, too, that someone some day, will also remember to pray for you.
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. Amen.
Father Garry Koch is pastor of St. Benedict Parish, Holmdel.