ALL SOULS DAY


 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today, the Church celebrates the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed...aka, All Souls Day

First, let us reflect on the words from the Book of Wisdom:

"The souls of the just are in the hands of God, and no torment shall touch them.
In the eyes of the foolish, they seemed to have died; their departure from this world was thought to be a misfortune, and their going from us, a complete destruction.
But the just are at peace. Though in the sight of men they suffered torments, their hope is full of immortality.
After a brief suffering, they will receive an abundant reward, for God tested them and found them worthy of Himself.
He tried them like gold in the furnace and accepted them as a sacrificial holocaust. On the day of judgment, the just will shine, darting about like sparks through stubble.
They will judge nations and rule over peoples, and the Lord shall reign over them forever.
Those who trust in the Lord will understand the truth, and the faithful in love will remain by His side, because grace and mercy are with His holy ones, and He cares for His elect."

This Word of the Lord.
RESPONSE - Thanks Be to God

Let us also turn our hearts to the Letter of Saint Paul to the Romans:

"Brothers and sisters, hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
For while we were still helpless, at the appointed time, Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
The Word of The Lord
RESPONSE: Thanks Be to God 

The Gospel according to ST. JN 6:37-40

Jesus said to the crowds:
“Everything that the Father gives me will come to me,
and I will not reject anyone who comes to me,
because I came down from heaven not to do my own will
but the will of the one who sent me.
And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day.
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.”

The Gospel of the Lord
RESPONSE: Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ 

✠
    Beloved, as we gather today to remember all the faithful departed, these sacred texts offer us profound consolation and a beautiful, enduring tapestry of hope.
    To human eyes, death often feels like an absolute end, a definitive destruction, and a source of overwhelming grief.
    We look at the empty chairs at our tables, we feel the weight of their absence, and our human nature naturally mourns the physical separation. It is easy in moments of deep grief to view the departure of our loved ones as a total misfortune.
Yet, the liturgy of All Souls' Day reminds us to lift our gaze and look far beyond the visible, earthly horizon.

    The Book of Wisdom powerfully reassures us that those who have gone before us, marked with the sign of faith, are not lost to oblivion. Rather, they are safely, securely held in the very hands of God, where no torment can ever touch them again. The passage reminds us that their trials and brief sufferings on earth were not a sign of divine anger or abandonment.
    Instead, it was a holy refinement—like gold being tested and purified in the hot fire of a crucible—preparing their souls for an eternity of pure peace.
    When we pray for those faithful departed, we acknowledge this journey of purification, trusting entirely in God's desire to present them blameless before His throne.

    This miraculous transformation from death into life is made possible through the profound mystery of Christ's sacrifice, as Saint Paul so beautifully proclaims to the Romans.
    We do not have to achieve perfection or earn this divine rescue; indeed, the saints were not perfect people. They never considered themselves that way. Rather they persevered, knowing that Christ died for us while we were still weak, helpless, and broken.
    You see, God doesn't wait for us to fix ourselves before offering salvation. If we study the saints, in fact, we find quite the opposite. But it is this unconditional, sacrificial love, poured deeply into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, that firmly grounds our Christian hope.

    The Gospel passage from John comes next, serving as a profound source of consolation on All Souls Day. While it may feel like a solemn feast dedicated to "dead people," (see note below), where we pray for all the deceased departed, and so on, we must look deeper.....
NOTE: The majority of non-Catholic Christians have a great anguish over the idea of prying for the dead. So this All Souls Day doesn't really sit well with them.

    But if we look at the heart of Jesus' message, we see a radical promise of inclusion and divine preservation: it is the Father's absolute will that "nothing should be lost".
    WE may mourn those who have gone before us, facing the stark reality of bodily death and the painful separation it brings, but its really a mistake to do so. In fact, Christ counters our fear of our own deaths and abandonment with the assurance of eternal safeguarding.
    Our prayers for those who died in the faith of Christ's promise, aka, the faithful departed in purgatory, are not desperate pleas to an indifferent judge, or wasted, Catholic  humbuggery. Rather, they are a hopeful alignment with Christ’s own mission to welcome, purify, and raise every soul entrusted to Him.
    This Scripture passage from John has one purpose: to transform our earthly thougths of grief and death into an enduring hope.The ultimate destiny of our loved ones - and indeed, ourselves - is in the unbreakable will of the Father and the resurrection power of the Son. 

    It reassures us that those we have "lost" are held securely in the relentless, saving embrace of God.

    This hope is not a fragile hope, or mere wishful thinking, either. It is an unshakeable, rock-solid certainty that death does not have the final word in human history.
    That is what the scoffers and non-Christian "rejectors" cannot understand, no matter how hard we love and evangelize them. Christ broke the chains of the grave, so our sentiments are fundamentally different from those who have no hope. We do not look into the tomb with despair; we look through it toward the resurrection.

    As we commend the souls of our deceased faithful brothers, sisters, friends, and relatives to God's infinite mercy today, let us carry this divine perspective back into our OWN daily lives.
    Let it change the way we live, the way we love, and the way we grieve.
    May we actively comfort one another with the truth that those who remain faithful to His love will abide by His side for all eternity.
    We continue to pray for their final purification and eternal rest, and we look forward with joyful anticipation to that glorious day when the Lord will permanently wipe away every tear from our eyes, death will be swallowed up in victory, and His beautiful reign of peace will be complete.

Glory to the Father The Son and The Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning is now and always, for ever and ever, AMEN!

In the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost, May the Lord descend upon you and accompany you always.  

✠

This was from an original Spanish language podcast OxiEspiritaul on You Tube.

Ai was used to develop images and translate for this format. 

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