Commemoration of All the Faithfully Departed
(John 6:37-40)
All Souls Day is like no other in the liturgical year. It is
not a feast on which we recite the Gloria during mass. Much less is it a
solemnity on which we profess the Creed. Nor is it memorial like tomorrow when we
celebrate San Martín de Porres. Yet it must be observed. Like a bitter pill it is provided by the
Church to heal us of sickness. On All
Souls Day we recover from the forgetfulness of our dead as well as our own
deaths.
Other than perhaps our parents, a spouse, a sibling, or in
rarer cases a friend, we too easily forget our dead loved ones. Yet their souls remain for us to help with
our prayers. We pray that the Lord will
be merciful to them. Perhaps they were
not as guilty of sin as it seemed because of some cultural or personal
condition. Perhaps as well, they made an
act of contrition before dying.
Today, a good day to visit the cemetery, we are reminded
that we too will die. This being so, we
want to renew our faith in the efficacy of Jesus’ death and resurrection. We remind ourselves especially today that his
passover from this world to the Father promises the same destiny to those who
stay close to him.
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