Since many of you could not come last Wednesday for ‘All souls day’, today we are going to recall the day. Why does our Catholic Church celebrate ‘All souls day?’ Because it is our duty to pray for the faithful departed who are in purification place or purgatory. Our prayers and spiritual practices will help them purified and cleansed before entering into eternity or heaven. They enter into light and dissolve into it; yes they all become glorious and shining light. There will only be happiness and unending joy. If they are still in purification place, they need our help our prayers. And that is why we celebrate all souls day.
There is a non-biblical story in which, St. Thomas asks Jesus, “My Lord and My God, Where is the end?” And Jesus then looks at Thomas and asks, “Thomas, have you discovered the beginning?’ Then He says, “Where there is the beginning, there shall also be the end”. Jesus says that He is the Alpha and Omega; He is the beginning and end. Everything comes from Him and ends in Him. There is no salvation without Him and no one can go to the Father except through Him. When Jesus was ready to go to the Father, St. Thomas and all the apostles asked Jesus, “Jesus, where are you going and how can we know the way?” Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life and no one can go to the Father except through me and any one who follows me will have light of life.
There is a Buddhist story in which a mother once went to Buddha and bowed before him and said, “Buddha, I know you are merciful and compassionate. You have the power to raise the dead to life and my only child died, please bring him back to life” and Buddha looked at her and said, ‘I will bring him back to life but before that I want you to go into the village nearby and get a bowl of sugar from any family in which death never occurred or happened. And the story ends saying that the mother went into the village and never came back meaning death is an ordinary thing and it happens to all. We cannot destroy or overcome death. And there are religions like Hinduism believe in reincarnation.
But we who believe in Christ and we who come to church and practice our faith have completely different faith. Yes our Christian faith is after life. We believe not in death but in life. Yes, Christ by dying destroyed our death and by rising restored our life and any one who believes in Him will have life everlasting.
Jesus our Lord during His public ministry healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, made the lamb walk and raised the dead to life to show us that sickness or death cannot destroy us. We belong to life and light; we belong to happiness and joy. The central point of the celebration of all souls day is not only praying for our departed beloveds but also keeping our faith alive and active.
Death can never take away our ability to communicate with our departed beloveds. We have the power of prayer and through prayers, we can easily communicate with them. People who are spiritual will never lose touch with the departed. Death cannot bring us down or depress us. We off course grieve because of our humanness but at the same time, we know we belong to Christ and He will look after us. When we know the reality that we do not belong here but we are all pilgrim people, we will begin to celebrate life every day. Death tells us that we have to celebrate life every day.
Death came through the disobedience of one man but by the obedience and sacrifice of Christ life came into this world. Those who believe in Christ should think only about life. Life can be celebrated only by living and loving. When we do everything for the glory of God our Father in Jesus Christ then life will blossom in this world. Let us focus on life and make this world a beautiful place to live and love. Amen.
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