All Souls

The readings for Mass on All Souls Day may be selected from several different readings that are usually used for funerals. One of the most beautiful of these passages is from the book of Wisdom, venerated by many and included as canonical Scripture by the early Church.

It is an ancient passage, yet it resonates with some modern attitudes toward death.

In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die:
and their departure is taken for misery,
And their going from us to be utter destruction:
but they are in peace.

Modern culture often tries to ignore death, despite its inevitability. When a person dies, technicians quickly take the body away and it may be seen only under controlled conditions, with lifelike makeup, before being taken out of the lives of the living forever. Thoughts about the dead person are pushed down into memory or even suppressed to a psychologically damaging degree. Also, obsessive fear of death can drive people to extremes of behavior, even to the point of causing harm to themselves or to others.

Certainly we should cherish the gifts of life and health. We should take care of ourselves and take care of each other.

But our Christian faith teaches us that death is not the end: it is but a threshold that we pass over when God calls us.

Nor is death an impenetrable wall dividing the Body of Christ. We are still connected, still joined in a never-ending prayer to the Father.

And so on this All Souls Day we remember, in prayer, all of our brothers and sisters in the Lord; we renew our prayer of entrusting them to the merciful love of God; we ask for whatever healing the Lord still needs to accomplish; and we give thanks for the great gift of redemption and eternal life won for us by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.