The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed(All Souls)
November 2, 2020
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we commemorate the Holy Souls, a remembrance inextricably tied to yesterday’s celebration of All Saints. It is as if yesterday we prayed in the moon’s full light. Today, we pray on its shadow side.
We pray with Psalm 23, a psalm we have prayed scores of times at the funeral Masses of beloved family and friends.
Just last month, we prayed it with a lighter tone, focusing on the sunlit field and restful waters.
Today, on this tender feast, we pray this psalm in its grey tones, with a lingering sense of bereavement and perhaps some uncertainty about afterlife’s mysteries.
In paradisum deducant te Angeli;
May the angels lead you into paradise;
in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres,
may the martyrs receive you at your arrival
et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Jerusalem.
and lead you to the holy city Jerusalem.
Chorus angelorum te suscipiat,
May choirs of angels receive you
et cum Lazaro quondam paupere
and with Lazarus, once poor,
æternam habeas requiem.
may you have eternal rest.
The popular theology – or more clearly “devotionalism”- surrounding All Souls Day has always challenged me. There is a discomfort with the concept of purgatory, and a time of temporal punishment for faithful but imperfect souls. I have always felt that there is enough suffering in this life to redeem us from the sinfulness we struggle with.
Our modern ideas of purgatory and hell still limp under concepts left over from the Middle Ages – fire, brimstone, and devils with pitch forks. My memory still shivers with images from my grade school choir when, at every funeral Mass, we sang the heavy tones of the Dies Irae with a priest clothed in black vestments.
Post-Vatican II theology has infused hope into that devotional gloom. It has refocused us on the truth informing our understanding of death so beautifully described in our reading from Wisdom:
The souls of the just are in the hand of God,
Wisdom 3:1-3
and no torment shall touch them.
They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead;
and their passing away was thought an affliction
and their going forth from us, utter destruction.
But they are in peace.
So what might be a reflective understanding of the core theology underlying this important day? The truth is that any theology is imperfect, and we do our best to imagine what is beyond our imagination.
But here are some ideas or beliefs that help my prayer:
- our souls endure beyond physical death since they are the Breath of God
- Christ has already paid the price of our sins and redeemed us on the Cross
- still, we never lose our free will either in life or in death
- we are free to choose for God or against God
- some choose total alienation (popularly conceptualized as “hell”)
- some choose union, but their choices are fragmented and weak at times, casting shadows over our wholeness or holiness
- those weak fragmentations may be healed in us even after death (purgatory) until the fullness of God’s Grace “dawns” on us and within us
- that healing can be fostered by our prayer for one another throughout the Communion of Saints
All Souls Day is the celebration of that prayer and that healing
for those who have gone before us.
Today, we embrace all those beloved souls in our prayer,
and join the prayer of the whole Church for them.
Poetry: Comfort by Christine Robinson
I am a child of God I have everything I need. This beautiful earth feeds my body. You feed my soul. You guide me in the ways of Life, for You are Life. And though I will walk through dark places, and eventually to death, I need never be afraid. For You are with me always, In You I can find comfort. With Your help, I can face whatever comes. My joy overflows. Your goodness and blessing will be with me Every day of my life -- and forever.
Music: Bach: Cantata No. 112, Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt
Lavish Mercy 