Feast of All Souls

November 2, 2025

God Cares for Us in Life and in Death

John 6:37-40

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.

Wisdom 3:1-4, 7-9 (from the first reading)

The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, 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. In the time of their judgment they shall shine and dart about as sparks through stubble; they shall judge nations and rule over peoples, and the LORD shall be their King forever. Those who trust in him shall understand truth, and the faithful shall abide with him in love: Because grace and mercy are with his holy ones, and his care is with the elect.

REFLECTIONS ON THE GOSPEL

Homily: Pope Francis — November 2, 2014 Angelus, St Peter’s Square  
All Souls — Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed
Wisdom 3: 1-9; Psalm 23: 1-6; Romans 5: 5-11; John 6: 37-40

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning,
Yesterday we celebrated the Solemnity of All Saints, and today the liturgy invites us to commemorate the faithful departed. These two recurrences are intimately linked to each other, just as joy and tears find a synthesis in Jesus Christ, who is the foundation of our faith and our hope. On the one hand, in fact, the Church, a pilgrim in history, rejoices through the intercession of the Saints and the Blessed who support her in the mission of proclaiming the Gospel; on the other, she, like Jesus, shares the tears of those who suffer separation from loved ones, and like Him and through Him echoes the thanksgiving to the Father who has delivered us from the dominion of sin and death. Yesterday and today, many have been visiting cemeteries, which, as the word itself implies, is the “place of rest”, as we wait for the final awakening. It is lovely to think that it will be Jesus himself to awaken us. Jesus himself revealed that the death of the body is like a sleep from which He awakens us. With this faith we pause — even spiritually — at the graves of our loved ones, of those who loved us and did us good. But today we are called to remember everyone, even those who no one remembers. We remember the victims of war and violence; the many “little ones” of the world, crushed by hunger and poverty; we remember the anonymous who rest in the communal ossuary. We remember our brothers and sisters killed because they were Christian; and those who sacrificed their lives to serve others. We especially entrust to the Lord, those who have left us during the past year. Church Tradition has always urged prayer for the deceased, in particular by offering the Eucharistic Celebration for them: it is the best spiritual help that we can give to their souls, particularly to those who are the most forsaken. The foundation of prayer in suffrage lies in the communion of the Mystical Body. As the Second Vatican Council repeats, “fully conscious of this communion of the whole Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, the pilgrim Church from the very first ages of the Christian religion has cultivated with great piety the memory of the dead” (Lumen Gentium, n. 50). Remembering the dead, caring for their graves and prayers of suffrage, are the testimony of confident hope, rooted in the certainty that death does not have the last word on human existence, for man is destined to a life without limits, which has its roots and its fulfillment in God. Let us raise this prayer to God: “God of infinite mercy, we entrust to your immense goodness all those who have left this world for eternity, where you wait for all humanity, redeemed by the precious blood of Christ your Son, who died as a ransom for our sins. Look not, O Lord, on our poverty, our suffering, our human weakness, when we appear before you to be judged for joy or for condemnation. Look upon us with mercy, born of the tenderness of your heart, and help us to walk in the ways of complete purification. Let none of your children be lost in the eternal fire, where there can be no repentance. We entrust to you, O Lord, the souls of our beloved dead, of those who have died without the comfort of the sacraments, or who have not had an opportunity to repent, even at the end of their lives. May none of them be afraid to meet You, after their earthly pilgrimage, but may they always hope to be welcomed in the embrace of your infinite mercy. May our Sister, corporal death find us always vigilant in prayer and filled with the goodness done in the course of our short or long lives. Lord, may no earthly thing ever separate us from You, but may everyone and everything support us with a burning desire to rest peacefully and eternally in You. Amen” (Fr Antonio Rungi, Passionist, Prayer for the Dead). With this faith in man’s supreme destiny, we now turn to Our Lady, who suffered the tragedy of Christ’s death beneath the Cross and took part in the joy of his Resurrection. May She, the Gate of Heaven, help us to understand more and more the value of prayer in suffrage for the souls of the dead. They are close to us! May She support us on our daily pilgrimage on earth and help us to never lose sight of life’s ultimate goal which is Heaven. And may we go forth with this hope that never disappoints!

A Homily for the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed

Back in the 1920s, physicists struggled with a subatomic problem. They could lock in a particle’s position, or they could describe its momentum. Either could be measured with rather impressive accuracy. They just could not do both at the same time.In the physics that Isaac Newton gave us, which still works so well on the level of daily experience, everything can be located in time and space. Indeed, time can be defined as movement through space. But in 1927, a very young German scientist named Werner Heisenberg addressed the subatomic problem with what would become known as his “Uncertainty Principle.” It is not just that physicists cannot identify a subatomic particle’s position and momentum at the same time. Astonishingly, a particle does not have a position or momentum in any meaningful way until the scientist decides to measure one or the other. Put another way, way down there, things disappear and reappear apparently without moving through space or time. If this foray into quantum physics is unsettling for you, calling purgation, or the process of a soul’s spiritual cleansing, a “spiritual uncertainty principle” will be as well. But here is where the two branches of knowledge run parallel. They both demand that we accept the uncertainty of moving beyond time and space when we leave the confines of our everyday world. Here’s how that plays out on the question of purgation after death. St. Thomas Aquinas followed the Greek philosopher Aristotle in speaking of everything within our world as being in process. Everything around us is always becoming something else. So are we. As these two philosophers put it, in every moment of its existence, everything is moving from potentiality into actuality. Everything is becoming something it has not yet become. The one exception to this rule is God, who is defined as pure actuality. Nothing is coming to be in God. Everything already is. What does this have to do with the early Christian conviction that a purgation follows death? (Requests for prayers can be found on tombs in the Roman catacombs.) In our lives, we constantly move from the potential to the actual. Put another way, we asymptotically approach God. Now, in our lives before death, we do this in time and space. We can be observed growing up, growing wise, growing in grace. (Of course, the opposite might also be observed!) At death, most of us will still fall short of who God called us to be, which is someone perfectly ready to receive the fullness, the actuality that is God. This means that somehow, though not in some time or some place, God must move us from what is potential to what is actual. And, just as our prayers aid each other in that process on this side of the grave, they do so as well on the other. This is where, just as on the quantum level of physics, our ability to picture a process gives out. We understand what it means to become who we were meant to be in time and space. We cannot begin to imagine how we do that outside of time and space. Hence purgation as the spiritual uncertainty principle. We know that God in mercy brings us to completion, makes us capable of receiving divine life. What was unrealized potential in our lives becomes, by God’s power and God’s mercy, fully actualized. But whoever decided to speak of “purgatory” rather than “purgation” did the faith no service. “Purgatory” suggests both a time and a space, neither of which is accurate. Not long ago, I was with my former scoutmaster as he died. Harold said something that was both astonishingly accurate and humble. He said: “I’m going to Jesus. I hope that I’ve lived my life in a way that makes him ready to receive me.” There’s the spiritual uncertainty principle of purgation. In his humility, Harold realized that what he had become in life was only a fraction of who God is, who God wants us to become. Harold did not lower God to his level. Yet Harold could confess that he had indeed striven to be ready for God. After death, how God in mercy and with the aid of our prayers moves Harold from the potential to the actual is quite uncertain. But that Harold had really readied himself for this final mercy on the part of God, of that there can be no meaningful doubt.

PREPARATION FOR THE SESSION

Adapted from Sacred Space: The Prayer Book 2025

Presence of God: Jesus, As I come to you today, fill my heart, my whole being, with the wonder of your sacred presence. Help me to become more aware of your presence in my life, and more receptive to that presence. I desire to love you as you love me. May nothing ever separate me from you. ( 1-2 minutes of silence)

Freedom: Jesus, Grant me the grace to have freedom of spirit. Keep me from being bound by desires and actions that are not good for me or others. Cleanse my heart and soul that I may live joyously in your love. ( 1-2 minutes of silence)

Consciousness: Where am I with God? With others in my life? What am I grateful for? Is there something I am sorry for, words or actions that have hurt others, and which I now regret? I take a moment to ask forgiveness of God and of those whom I have hurt. God, I give you thanks for your constant love and care for me. Keep me always aware of your presence in my life. (2-3 minutes of silence)

OPENING PRAYER (Resource unknown)

Savior, we believe you weep at every death, and pray at every tomb, for all the dead whose faith is known to you alone. Like Lazarus, call us your friends, stay in our company, share what we have, come to our aid when we call, and grant us eternal life.

COMPANIONS FOR THE JOURNEY

From First Impressions 2025, a service of the Southern Dominican Province

When my parents died some years ago I was comforted by scriptural verses like those selected for today’s celebration. The Book of Wisdom doesn’t go out of its way to describe where the souls of the dead are right now. But it does offer consoling words we are invited to place our hope in: “The souls of the just are in the hand of God.” Which is similar to what I held on to when my parents died. I’ve told people that I don’t know where they are, or what they are doing right now; I just believe that they have fallen into the hands of a merciful God. Family and friends pictured mom in heaven cooking up her Sunday pasta with her sisters and dad playing pinochle with his brothers-in-law. What wonderful images they are, and I am sure they offered comfort to my family at the gravesides. But all I hung on to were those merciful hands of God who created my parents, sustained them in a simple and trusting faith through hard times and final illnesses and now, is showering mercy and love on them. As Wisdom puts it, “The souls of the just are in the hand of God.” Wisdom has some particular souls in mind; those whose “passing away was thought an affliction” and who were “tried” during their lifetime. People are tempted to give up on God when life offers struggles. Wisdom’s view of our hardships is that they are like offerings placed on the altar to God. By reason of our baptismal priesthood, we are priests who offer our life’s service and struggles to God, we have the hope that the Book of Wisdom gives us, “the faithful shall abide with God in love, because grace and mercy are with God’s holy ones.” There, we hear it again, a variation on what I was hearing at the time of my parents’ deaths, “they have fallen into the hands of a merciful God.” That is all we can know for sure now – and it is enough for people whose hope is in God. That is also the focus of Paul’s words to us today – hope. This hope is based on God’s love for us. Paul tells us that God’s love has shown itself very concretely in Jesus’ acceptance of death on our behalf. We didn’t earn or deserve this love; it was given to us while we were sinners. “But God proves God’s love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” We need not fear death, not as much as some of us do, if we believe that we are falling into the loving hands of God. Jesus is the sure sign of God’s love for us. Sin did not prevent God from showing us love in Jesus and, because of Jesus, sin need not keep us separated from God in this life or the next. God is offering us reconciliation: “we were reconciled to God through the death of [God’s] Son.” In this life and in the next, we are reconciled to God by our faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection. When we waver in that faith, as we might do facing the death of a loved one after a long and painful illness, or when we consider our own death, it is the Holy Spirit who continually pours into our hearts the reassurance that God loves us. Nothing, not even sin and death, can separate us from the love of God. So, it isn’t only in death that we fall into the hands of a loving God – through Jesus we are already in God’s hands and those hands are molding us more and more into trusting children of God.  Paul says it succinctly: “Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” The gospel continues the message: we are secure in the hands of a loving God, both in this life and the next. Some of my childhood images of God keep sneaking up on me when I think of how God deals with sin. Those images presented a very angry God who meted out a stern justice and was ready to strike down sinners — except for the intervention of Jesus, the beloved Son, who got between us and God’s raised fist. Funerals at that time weren’t much help in dispelling those images of God. The vestments were black and the hymns dour, especially the “Dies Irae,” (“Day of Wrath”), a medieval hymn which depicted God’s stern judgment on the dead. (Some classical composers have incorporated that melody in their pieces to convey an atmosphere of dread and foreboding.) It was hard to determine who would have the last word over our souls: the God of our last judgment, or the compassionate judge Jesus. We should have read more scripture in those days — for example, today’s gospel. John shows that God does not have a split personality: the angry and exacting Judge of all humankind and the forgiving and loving Christ. Rather, John tells us that in Jesus, God has drawn close to us. Wisdom’s reassurance that the dead are in the “hand of God” is echoed in today’s gospel. Jesus is the visible manifestation of God’s loving hand which holds the faithful securely in this life and will not let us go in the next. John puts it this way: Jesus has come to give us eternal life – beginning now. Eternal life is now because, in Christ, we are already in an intimate relationship with God and God’s life is in us. This relationship starts now and is not broken by death, for Christ says he will raise us up “on the last day.” Shall we accept the life Christ is offering us now and receive the loving God into our lives? We already have the gift of God’s life in us, but we gather each Sunday to be reminded and strengthened in that life. How does it happen? The sign of the believing community gathered with us today encourages us.  Hearing the Word of God makes God’s active and creative power present to us. The Eucharist we receive is the food that sustains our hope. Now and into the next life, God’s hands will never let us go. Jesus assures us today, “I will not reject anyone who comes to me.” He is very clear that it is his intention to enter into a permanent relationship with us, for it is also, “the will of the one who sent me,” not to lose anyone God put into Jesus’ care. On this feast and the days which surround it, the Mexican community celebrates “the Day of the Dead.” Family members visit the graves of their deceased and take the dead person’s favorite foods. At the grave family and friends, adults and children, have a picnic: they tell stories of their dead and share the food they brought. It is an expression of the undying bonds of love that unite them to their family members who have passed to the other side. They also believe that the spirits of their loved ones are alive and, in some way, still with them. We don’t have to be of Mexican descent to celebrate the lives of our deceased family and friends. Aren’t we doing something similar to what our Mexican brothers and sisters do when we gather at Eucharist on this day? We share stories from the scriptures, the family stories we have in common. We then eat the “favorite foods” that nourished our deceased brothers and sisters: the Eucharistic bread and wine that sustained them in their living and dying and that gives us hope that someday we will again eat at a banquet table with one another and the risen Lord. This is a time to go to visit the cemetery and share stories of the dead with our children. We could recall their lives, how they lived their faith and passed that faith on to us. We might open family albums for our little ones and, like a storybook reading in the evening, tell them the stories of their deceased grandparents, uncles, aunts, and our friends. We could include prayers for them as we pray bedtime prayers with the little ones. In our part of the globe, it is Autumn and nature seems to be “passing away” around us. But we have firm hope that, after a season of rest and bareness, the earth will come alive again. We also have a secure hope, based on Jesus’ promise to us, that he has given us eternal life and that, with him and one another, we shall rise “on the last day.”

LIVING THE GOOD NEWS

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion? Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions which follow:

Reflection Questions

Has my faith ever been tested by difficult times in my life? How did I respond? What kept me going?

Why do I think people are often reluctant to talk about death? Do I worry about death, mine or another’s?

What do I think of the way some cultures deal with death? Which, in my mind, are healthy? Which can be unhealthy?

What do I think the afterlife is like?

Do I believe in the supernatural world—angels and saints, for example?

What do I think of purgatory? Someone has describe it as an “incubator” where we are prepared for the joys of heaven; is that comforting or too fanciful?

From Father Daniel Harrington, S.J.: Do I really believe in life after death? What does my faith in the risen Christ have to do with hope for eternal life

Do I have loved ones whom I can no longer see but only feel? How do I stay close to them in my heart?

As I recall my beloved dead, do I believe that God holds them securely in loving hands? What can I do to increase my hope in God’s never-ending love, for me and for them?

What can I do today to comfort someone who has lost a loved one? Is it sometimes enough just to sit in sorrow with that person or hear his sadness or her regrets?

Do I really believe in life after death?

CLOSING PRAYER

Don’t forget to provide some prayer time at the end, including those whom you wish to pray for. Insert their names where prompted: Jesus, help me to remember that in You, everyone, every single person, is loved, called by name, and claimed as a beloved child. You told us so. “I will never drive away anyone who comes to me,” You said. There is nothing in the world to keep us apart from Your love. Jesus, help me to remember that in You, no one is ever lost or left behind. Not my loved ones who have gone before, not imperfect me. You will raise us up on the last day, without regard to who we are, what we are like, or what we have done or left undone. That’s the “raising up love” You promised—Your “raising up love” that filled the souls of ____________________’s life here on earth and continues to fill his/her life evermore.

FOR THE WEEK AHEAD

Weekly Memorization: Taken from the first reading for today’s session….The souls of the just are in the hands of God.

MEDITATIONS

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

Today’s reading from Wisdom 3:
The souls of the just are in the hand of God;
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 at peace.

A reading from John 14: Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.

Which of these passages gives me more comfort and hope? What is that hope base on? God’s love? My faith? Scripture How is Jesus’ acceptance of His death a sign of hope for us? Do I understand that I did not and cannot earn God’s love? (from St. Paul: “But God proves God’s love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us”). Do I believe that in death my loved ones have fallen into the loving hands of God? How do I nurture that belief in times of sorrow and loneliness?. I pray this week a prayer adapted from St. Paul: “for I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor death will be able to separate me from the love of God in you, Christ Jesus.”

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Relationship:

All Souls’ Day is as much about our own fears of death as it is about the loss of loved ones. The following passage from Isaiah 43:1-2,4-5a provides a way to deal with present doubts and fears: But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, Jacob, and formed you, Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you ;I have called you by name: you are mine. When you pass through waters, I will be with you; through rivers, you shall not be swept away. When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned, nor will flames consume you. Because you are precious in my eyes and honored, and I love you, I give people in return for you and nations in exchange for your life. Fear not, for I am with you; from the east I will bring back your offspring, from the west I will gather you. First, think of the particular cares and worries which have, at times, threatened to drown you, then think of those trials by fire you have undergone. Meditate on this passage, imagining that God is speaking these words to you alone. Can you really believe that God cares this much for you? Rewrite these phrases as a response in hope and trust to God’s love and care. . Are there any dangers lurking in the corners of your life that you fear at this time? Share these with God, knowing He will listen.

A PRAYER (See the closing prayer, above)

When you are feeling lonely, or are missing someone who is no longer here, this is a nice prayer to say:
Lord, like the traveler lifting the fallen one on the Jericho road, healing all his wounds, you went to Lazarus’ tomb, and would not let him die but loosed the bonds of death, so great was your love for him. Savior, we believe you weep at every death, and pray at every tomb, for all the dead whose faith is known to you alone. Like Lazarus, call us your friends, stay in our company, share what we have, come to our aid when we call. and grant us eternal life.

POETIC REFLECTIONS

Birago Diop, A Muslim poet from Senegal, sums up our convictions about those who have gone before us: Do you see evidence of those who have gone before us in any of the paces he mentions?

Those who are dead have never gone away,
They are in the shadows darkening around,
They are in the shadows fading into day,
The dead are not under the ground.
They are in the trees that quiver,
They are in the woods that weep,
They are in the waters of the rivers,
They are in the waters that sleep.
They are in the crowds, they are in the homestead.
The dead are never dead

A message to remember:

Ascension by Colleen Hitchcock

And if I go,
while you’re still here...
Know that I live on,
vibrating to a different measure
—behind a thin veil you cannot see through.
You will not see me,
so you must have faith.
I wait for the time when we can soar together again,
—both aware of each other.
Until then, live your life to its fullest.
And when you need me,
Just whisper my name in your heart,
...I will be there.