Homily for THE COMMEMORATION OF ALL OF THE FAITHFUL DEPARTED (ALL SOULS) 1/2 November, 2014

Transcription

1 Homily for THE COMMEMORATION OF ALL OF THE FAITHFUL DEPARTED (ALL SOULS) 1/2 November, 2014 Fr. Dwayne s homily follows. I. 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. 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. - I recall there were times when I would call my parents at the end of this day and ask, What did you do today? - and my mom would say, Oh, we went to the cemetery. - she meant, of course, that she and my dad went to St. Michael cemetery in Norway where they visited the graves of my family on my dad s side of family and then they went to St. Mary cemetery near Urbana to visit the graves of my family on my mom s side of the family - perhaps that is a custom members of an older generation did years ago and forgotten, or neglected, by us today but it is a time honored way to

2 observe this day. II. For on this day, the Commemoration of All Souls, we connect with our deceased loved ones: we connect by visiting the cemetery, we connect in our thoughts, in our hearts and in our prayer. - yesterday, on the Solemnity of all the saints, we honored those who are in glory with God in heaven - today we connect with those we know more personally: our own friends and family members those we have known and loved dearly: it s like a great family reunion! Just as at any family reunion, there may be people there we know well and some people we are not acquainted with. Some we have a personal relationship with and some we do not but they are all members of one family - that is what we are doing in the Church: we are connecting with all of God s children, and from a Christian perspective we are connecting with all of our brothers and sisters in Christ. II. When someone dies, we may wonder, Where are they? Where did they go? Is it all over for them? - my parents are buried at St. Michael cemetery in Norway; their bodies are there, but I don t believe they are there for their soul has gone on ahead to another life

3 - and when someone dies who hasn t been the most perfect person, who may have had obvious faults and short comings, we may wonder, How does God think of this? - from our perspective we may wonder if they could really be in heaven, if they were not perfect. But they really weren t bad people, so how could they be separated from God eternally? III. This commemoration reassures us and comforts us. This commemoration of All Souls is all about God s mercy. - our readings today are filled with that message: - the book of Wisdom tells us that the souls of the just are in the hand of God and no torment shall touch them. To a human being, death seems like the end, it seems like foolishness. But the Book of Wisdom tells us, grace and mercy are with his holy ones, and his care is with his elect. - St. Paul tells us, If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. - and Jesus tells us in the gospel, 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. - the message is clear: that God wants to be one with us. This is a message repeated over and over again in scripture. My plans for you are peace and not disaster we are told in one of the psalms.

4 IV. This is indeed a very reassuring message, as we think about our loved ones and perhaps ourselves. - it says we don t have to be perfect to go to heaven: we just have to want to be with Jesus. It says we have a personal relationship with Christ and that we want to deepen that relationship, even though there are times, perhaps many times, when we stumble and sin. It all began for us in baptism: in baptism we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. This means we are expected to die to sin, to die to our selfish desires and to live out of a sense of love just as Jesus did. We do not always do this perfectly but it is our desire to be united to Christ and to live as he did. And so did our deceased loved ones. VI. Today is a day for remembering and for uniting ourselves in prayer and in love with our deceased loved ones. Today is also a day for remembering God s desire to spend eternity with us and remembering God s mercy. Please pray with me. Eternal rest grant unto to them, O lord. And let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen. May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen. ******************************************************

5 Fr. Kyle s homily follows. Are we dead? I am not just talking about the volume of our singing at mass. In today s second reading, St. Paul speaks of how, through our baptism, we have been baptized into Christ s death. But what does this mean? The word Baptism means to submerge. One of the great things about being Catholic is how we see in the outward actions of the sacraments what actually happens in our soul. We witness the baptized child being submerged in the water we are reminded that our old sinful self is put to death. When we witness the baby being brought back out of the water we are reminded that we are brought to new life in the resurrection. But why do we have to die in the first place? What is so important about being baptized into Christ s death? Well, if we have the courage to be honest with ourselves, we see that there is a part of us which is less than perfect. In fact, we are often downright sinful. St. Paul speaks of our slavery to sin. All too often we find ourselves running into the same trap of sin doing the things that we do not even want to do. At times, it can seem like we are trapped, unable to break this seemingly constant cycle of the sins with which we struggle. It is for this reason that we need to be baptized into Christ s death. Because, through this death, our old sinful self is crucified with Christ so that our sinful body might be destroyed and we are freed from our slavery to sin. We can be reminded of this every time we walk in and out of this chapel. At the entrance of every door is a small holy water fount. If you are anything like me, you often walk by, dip your finger in, and quickly and unthinkingly make the sign of the cross. Again, this is one of the great things about being Catholic. We ought to remind ourselves every time we walk by these founts that we are dead! Our old sinful self has died with Christ and we are free from the slavery of sin. Today, and every time we pass by the holy water fount, let us take the time to remind ourselves of our baptism, to remind ourselves that God has given us the grace to be freed and for our sinful self to be put to death. Are we dead? I sure hope so. For it is through death that we are brought to true life.