The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls Day) - November 2, 2020 All Souls’ Day: Honoring our memories and renewing our hope Readings: Wisdom 3: 1-9 / Psalm 23 / Romans 5: 5-11 / John 6: 37-40
I’ve always been struck by how All Saints and All Souls Days are back to back. It might be tempting to think that November 1st is for the good and the 2nd is for the “less good.” Well, that’s the way I thought as a child and only after a superficial observation. My experience of this special day changed during missionary service in Guatemala, Central America. The whole country stopped on November 2nd, Día de los Difuntos. Everyone went to their pueblos, hometowns, to be with family and visit the graves of deceased family members, usually in the community “campo santo” (holy field), cemetery. People didn’t just go to visit the family gravesites but they went also to celebrate a gathering of family and friends with food, music, dancing, singing and socializing. It was a day when everyone got religion and prayed, even those who never set foot in the church for Mass. The reason for the day touched everyone deeply. It was about those who had lived before us and given us life and, importantly, memories and faith. Perhaps that’s a good way to distinguish between the two days – All Saints and All Souls. On Nov. 1st it seems like we do more honoring, while on Nov. 2nd we do more remembering. However, more is at work. The Church in her wisdom wants to have important truths firm in our hearts and minds before we delve into the depths of grief and memory which tug at our heartstrings and give character to All Souls Day. The two days share roots and reach fullness when complementing each other. Pope emeritus Benedict XVI helps us appreciate how All Saints Day sets the stage for what we commemorate today as he writes, “In the Communion of Saints, canonized and not canonized, which the Church lives thanks to Christ in all her members, we enjoy their presence and their company and cultivate the firm hope that we shall be able to imitate their journey and share one day in the same blessed life, eternal life.” Benedict XVI speaks of a journey we share with the saints – the journey of earthly life. Today, All Souls Day, is the continuation of that “journey” for us, not only our human existence, but the living out on a daily basis the hope and promise proclaimed in the celebration of All Saints, the same hope that sustained our beloved faithful departed. For me personally, this is the first All Souls Day I celebrate with both of my parents belonging to “All the Faithful Departed.” It is, more than ever before for me, a day of remembering, to remember my dear parents. To be honest, it’s not something I really looked forward to. Still, the hopes of both my father and mother for the Lord’s eternal promises are what give me consolation. Still, hope and grief reside in one place, my heart. Still, now more than ever before, I honor the faith they taught me and remember how they lived it in their lives. Our loved ones pass on. Christ, who rejects no one, receives them and satisfies their longings. Today, All Souls Day, let us delve into the depths of memory, especially the remembrance of our loved ones, to rise renewed in faith and set our hope on Christ in whom we overcome death and in whom we find life, eternally.
May the souls of our dear faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace! Fr. Charles Johnson, O.P.