HOMILY FOR ALL SOULS DAY
November 2nd. 2008
Today we remember, in prayer and love, all those who have gone before us into the Kingdom of heaven, and who live there in the Presence of God.. Today’s feast of All Souls reminds us that, though our loved ones may have left us physically, they remain with us as members of the Church in Jesus our Lord and Saviour. The Church exists on three levels, if you will, or in three sections: first there is the Church triumphant, which consists of all the saints, of all those persons, whether canonized by the Church or not, who are now in heaven, for they have achieved the goal for which God made them, namely, full and perfect union with Him. Secondly, there is the Church suffering, which consists of those persons who have died, but who are in a state of purgation or in purgatory, being made ready to enter the eternal Presence of our all-Holy God. Thirdly there is the Church militant. That is us, you and me, who belong to the Church on earth. We call it the Church militant because we must struggle in this world against the many temptations, and against the forces of evil which seek to take us away from God, but who cannot succeed as long as we stay with Jesus. On this feast of All Souls we pray especially for the souls in purgatory, for those persons who are awaiting entrance into heaven. They are assured, none the less, of achieving that ultimate and perfect joy one day. By our prayers we will assist them to reach their goal and become saints before the throne of God.
In the Gospel passage today, Jesus assures us that we have every hope of attaining eternal happiness in heaven with Him. Jesus is our hope; He is the new Adam Who has won for us, by His death on the Cross, the right to eternal life. Paul wrote: “Just as in Adam all men (and women) die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” In Jesus there is no lasting death, only life. Here is a story about a man from the city of Greenville, South Carolina, who had recently died. After his burial, a letter came to his home from the County Department of Social Services, . which read: “Dear Sir: Your food stamps will be stopped effectively March 1992, because we received notice that you passed away. You may reapply if there is a change in your circumstances.” I doubt there was any change in the case of that man who had died, but there was a tremendous change in the case of Jesus’ friend, Lazarus. You will remember that Lazarus lived with his two sisters, Martha and Mary, in the town of Bethany, quite close to Jerusalem. Jesus was informed that his good friend, Lazarus, had died, and so Jesus went to Bethany to see Martha and Mary. Jesus said to Martha: “Your brother will rise again... “ and then He added “I am the Resurrection and the Life. Those who believe in Me, even though they die will live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.” (Jn:11:25-26) After that, with a word Jesus brought Lazarus back to life, calling him to come out of the tomb in which his body had been laid four days earlier. (Jn. 11:23)
Just as Jesus brought Lazarus back to life, and also raised to life the dead son of the widow of Naim, so too Jesus will raise us up to new life when we die. We should never forget that Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life, as He said. He is our hope both for a peace-filled life on this earth, and for an eternal life of happiness in heaven with God. In a world where many people are confused and mixed up, where violence is so common on our city streets, and even in some families, where we are faced with a world environment which is more and more being damaged by us, and where many people seek solace and escape from their problems in excessive alcohol and drugs, in the midst of all theses difficulties in our society these days, Jesus offers us life, hope and peace when we follow Him. Jesus assures us that, despite all the bad news we hear about on T.V and read about in the newspapers, God loves this world and He loves each one of us too, and He is ready to help everyone who comes to Him in prayer. No dictator on earth, no political system, nothing can defeat God’s plan for our eternal happiness through Jesus, His Divine Son. Without Jesus in our lives we can become very cynical and sad about life. Once a college newspaper in the U.S offered a prize to the person who submitted the best definition of life. Hundred of entries came pouring in, and the majority of them gave definitions of life which were extremely negative - things like: “Life is a joke that isn’t funny” or “Life is a jail sentence we get for the crime of being born” or: “Life is a disease for which there is only one cure, death.” As followers of Jesus, we have another vision of life, a positive vision which gives direction, purpose and meaning to our lives. In this vision, Jesus shows us that we can experience God’s loving Presence in our lives, and we can face any fears or anxieties we may have with confidence, because we know that we are never alone, never abandoned by God. We have Jesus’ promise that He will be with us always. Today, in the first reading we heard from the book of Lamentations that our hope is based on God’s love for us. “The steadfast love of God never ceases, His mercies never come to an end..... this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope” said the author of the book of Lamentations. (Lam.3:20)
A doctor once told this moving story about a wonderful Christian mother and her five-year old son, who was in hospital dying of cancer. One morning, before the mother arrived at the hospital, a nurse heard the little boy saying: “I hear the bells. I hear the bells”. Over and over that morning the nurses heard him saying: “I hear the bells. They’re ringing”. When the mother got to the hospital she asked one of the nurses how her son was doing, and the nurse replied: “Oh, he’s hallucinating today. It’s probably the medication he is on. He keeps on saying he hears bells.” Then, mother face lit up with understanding and she said to the nurse: “You listen to me. He is not hallucinating, and he’s not out of his head either, because of any medicine. A few weeks ago, I told him that when the pain in his chest got bad and it was hard to breathe, it meant he was going to leave us. It meant he was going to go to heaven, and that when the pain got really bad , he was to look up into the corner of his room, and listen for the bells of heaven, because they would be ringing for him.” With that the mother marched down the hall and went into her little boy’s room, picked him out of is bed, and rocked him in her arms, until the sounds of ringing bells were only quiet echoes and he was gone. “You’ll never convince me,” said the doctor, “that that great woman in her gallant act of mothering did not leave the hospital a different place from what she found it”.
In today’s second reading, Paul tells us clearly that death is not the end of things for us. When we die, our life is changed, not ended. Paul wrote to the Corinthians saying: “For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable and we will be changed.” (1Cor.15:53) Jesus assures us today that life is stronger than death. It overcomes death for us, and, because of that truth and because of the way we live that truth, this world can be a different place from the one we found when we were born. To believe that Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life is to accept His call for each of us to live our lives as He lived His on this earth. It is call to proclaim loudly the Gospel of Life to everyone we meet, to proclaim the truth that God is present to us and gives us all we need to lead positive and happy lives in love with Jesus and with one another. We cannot, as individuals, do everything to make this world a better place, but we can do something, and what we can do, we should do by the grace of God.
Once there was a dying man who said to his wife: “Dear, be sure to put Tommy in charge of the business.” She answered : “Why not Joey. He’s the smartest of the boys.” “All right”, said her husband “but give the van to Harry.” “But Jerry needs it for his family”, she replied. “Okay” he said, “give it to Jerry, but I want Janey to have the cottage.” His wife replied: “Dear you know that Janey hates the country, she is a city girl. Give it to Martha.” Finally, her husband said: “Dear who is dying, you or me?”
If we ask that question here, who is dying? the answer would truthfully be you and me. We are all dying sooner or later. In the meantime there is work to be done with and for Jesus, Whom we believe to be our Lord and our life. By the way we live, by the deeds we do, we should by dying to let others know that there is a better life ahead. We should be dying to let it be known that we are all very important to God, for He loves us as His own sons and daughters. We should be dying to let it be known that, because God loves us so much, we are worthy of each other’s love and respect. We should be dying to let it be known that, just as Jesus died and rose again to life, so with Jesus we too will rise to new life, to eternal life with our God of Love May the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen..