Solemnity of All Souls (Cycle A, Year II)
Community Word: Eternal life is for those who trust and believe in Jesus Christ.
Theme: We trust and believe in Jesus Christ when we care for the least of our brethren. (Phils)
We trust and believe in Jesus Christ when we do the will of the Father. (Int’l)
Promise: “Those who trust in him shall understand truth, and the faithful shall abide with him in love, because grace and mercy are with the holy ones, and care is with the elect.” (Wis 3:9)
Reflection:
All Souls Day this year falls on the first Sunday of November. It is a very special day to remember those who have died, a day of mixed feelings of deep gratitude, perhaps feelings of guilt for not having told them how much they were appreciated and loved. This is a day to remember the people who touched us in profound ways, but left us to grapple with the grief of losing them.
This is also a day to perhaps make amends and express forgiveness to those who died but were never reconciled with us. Our faith teaches us that we can pray for those who have died. Prayer can unite what death divides. In Jesus Christ, we are given the power to help those who have died, through prayer, to renew broken connections and to show gratitude and express forgiveness.
It is also the day for renewing our belief in eternal life. The book of Wisdom tells us that the life of the just people is not lost in death; “the souls of the just are in the hand of God.” The loosing of a love one seems difficult to understand from our human perspective, but God’s plan is above our understanding. What God is doing is for the best of all and our dear departed are worthy to be with Him in paradise. They did not belong to us.
In the letter of St. Paul to the Romans, we know that Christ, once raised from among the dead, will not die again, death will have no power over Him (v.9). As Disciples of Christ, we need not fear death but we should posses an unwavering confidence that God will make way for life’s darkness until our end. God is our “light and our salvation” (v 34) and we are freed to do His very will and for that we should experience new vigor in life.
The gospel of Matthew says that Jesus will return as King of all nations to sit in judgment. We live side by side with the less important ones we find in every sectors of society. Jesus mentions several instances where we can contribute to build the best for them, and to those who respond He will say: “Come who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom.” As we pray for the faithful departed, we think of them as blessed by the Father. Jesus, in the Sermon of the Mount identifies himself with the marginalized. He calls them blessed because God decided to be with them. Jesus teaches us that those who care for the poor and the helpless are blessed.
On the Day of Judgment the criterion is simple yet strange, that in the gospel, both the righteous and the wicked are surprised. The supreme criterion is LOVE. Jesus associates himself with good, honest and simple people. For him they are much easier to minister, but Jesus identifies himself with every men and women especially with the least, the miserable, the ungrateful and undeserving. For Jesus, love is not something one must do because of a promised reward, but a spontaneous and generous sharing of what one has to give to those who have less in life. To Jesus, the real laws are those written in our hearts, and admission into the Heaven depends on our works to aid and comfort the needy. God is going to judge us on the works of mercy we perform as our response to human need. An act of mercy is a personal calling and a responsibility for others. One thing is certain; excuses are not accepted on the last day.
God constantly calls us to be closer to Him because He knows that it is in His presence that we will discover what it means to live an abundant life. As Jesus says in the gospel of John: “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day,” (Jn 6:40). For us, it is an opportunity to renew our faith in eternal life, to take an account of our life and then, examine what we have been doing with the years given to us, if we have lived a life according to the will of the Father. Jesus is designated as judge by the Father and he will weigh all of us all on what we have done in loving the least, the lost and the last.
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, help us to show your goodness and kindness to all that we meet so that when we are called to render an account of our lives, we may be found pleasing to you. We thank you for the assurance that our faithful departed are in your hands and that we are called and are destined to rise to eternal life. Prepare a place for us where we shall one day be reunited with those whom we have known and loved. Amen.
Reflection Questions:
1. All Souls Day reminds us of the reality of the last things: death, judgment, reward, punishment. Do you live with the thought that someday you will have to render an account of your life to God?
2. In the last day, we shall be judged by love. Do you think you can live according to the words of Jesus, “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did it for me and what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me”? Have we cared for the least among us through corporal or spiritual works of mercy?
This Week’s Daily Mass Reading Guide:
November 2, 2014 (Sun) Wis 3:1-9/Ps 23: 1-3a,3b-4,5,6/Rom 6:3-9/Mt 25:31-46 (Philippines)
Jn 6:37-40 (USA, International)
November 3, 2014 (Mon) Phil 2:1-4/Ps 131:1,2,3/Lk 14:12-14
November 4, 2014 (Tues) Phil 2:5-11/Ps 22:26-27,28-30,31-32/Lk 14:15-24
November 5, 2014 (Wed) Phil 2:12-18/Ps 27:1,4,13-14/Lk 14:25-33
November 6, 2014 (Thurs) Phil 3:3-8/Ps 105:2-3,4-5,6-7/Lk 15:1-10
November 7, 2014 (Fri) Phil 3:17-4:1/Ps 122:1-2,3-4,4-5/Lk 16:1-8
November 8, 2014 (Sat) Phil 4:10-19/Ps 112:1-2,5-6,8,9/Lk 16:9-15
“Ignorance of the Bible is ignorance of Christ. Read your Bible daily!”
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