I do not think it is an accident
that these three celebrations
– Halloween, All Souls and All Saints –
are placed at this time of year,
this time of transition from autumn to winter.
It is a time to surrender… in faith.
--Jacqueline Leach Bacon,
OLMC, November 2, 2021
Hope does not disappoint, if it’s hope. Anything else probably will. But if it’s hope, it will not disappoint.
Christianity was supposed to be a belief, a very deep and abiding belief, in hope. It wasn’t meant to be focused on our brokenness, on how far we are from the kingdom of God – it was meant to be an encouragement in hope, hope for one another, and hope for ourselves. Yet, so often, Christianity is so driven by fear that hope doesn’t play much of a role.
Our everyday dealings, the everyday ways in which we show our love and concern for one another, is what the Feast of All Souls is about: it’s about showing our concern and our care for those that we know, those that we love, those that have gone before us, those that have need of our prayers. In our daily dealings, we will reach out to one another to ask for their help, so that they have a role in things. We’ll invite them to help with this or that, we will enable them to use their gifts We will reach out of ourselves so that it won’t be about us, it will be about someone else. Praying for the souls is just like that: it’s about them. It’s about uniting ourselves to them through God, that our prayer can begin that process of unification that the saints now know, but that those of us who have struggled through life perhaps do not, for we are not ready in our own selves to let go when we die.
It is that love that we participate in today as we pray for All Souls. As we remember them and everything about their lives, and as we think of those whom we have never met whom we pray for, our prayer is that one day we will all be one in Christ, with people we know and people we’ve never met, with all united in one love, forever. That is our hope.
--Fr. Patrick Michaels,
Homily, November 2, 2023
Today is the Commemoration
of all the Faithful Departed...
Image source: Pauline Montiel prays after placing flowers and statues of saints on her son’s grave, Queen of Heaven Catholic Cemetery, Hillside, Illinois, November 1, 2013, https://catholicleader.com.au/features/prayer-for-the-dead/
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