Reflections for The Commemoration of all the Faithful Departed

2nd November  

  The Commemoration of all the Faithful Departed

Isaiah 25:6-9. Psalm 22 Rv.1. 2Cor 5:1. 6-10,

The Lord will wipe away the tears from every cheek.

The Lord is my Shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.

To live in the body is to be exiled from the Lord. We want to make our home with the Lord.

Father into your hands I commit my spirit. With these words he breathed his last.

Luke 23:44-46

⁴⁴ It was now about the sixth hour and the sun's light failed, so that darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. ⁴⁵ The veil of the Sanctuary was torn right down the middle. ⁴⁶ Jesus cried out in a loud voice saying, 'Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.' With these words he breathed his last.

Into your hands.

            Death is a mystery. Before the dead we are silent. As David said of his son, ‘I will go to him, he will not come back to me’. When the person is someone close in love we feel the wrench of death. No one knows what happens after death, but Jesus gives us grounds for hope and consolation.

            His message is that God is love. God has called us into existence because he wants sons and daughters for their divine family of the Trinity. God longs for us like the father in the parable of the lost son – ‘while he was a long way off, the father saw him. He was moved with pity, ran out, threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. He called his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe, put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. We will have a feast for my son who was dead and has come to life.’ (Luke 15:20-22). This is Jesus’ description of his Father. This life is not the life we are meant for. Like a child in the womb we are happy and contented here and don’t look forward to the trauma of birth. God is like a mother who longs for the birth of her child, to hold her baby in her arms.

            Death will always be painful because we leave behind our loved ones, but there is another aspect to it. Faith in Jesus is to fall in love with him. Life is meant to be a life with Jesus, but it is a life in faith and faith is darkness. We see now, says St. Paul, as if in a dark mirror but then we shall see clearly face to face (1 Cor.13:12). While in this world, we are in exile from the Lord. This is not because he is not here but because we cannot see or hear him. Our faith encourages us to long to be at home with him. When our hearts are full of love for Jesus, then death is swallowed up in victory. When the tent of this body is put off, there is prepared for us a house in which we will live forever. We will not be left bodiless but will be clothed with the eternal divine body of Jesus.

            The sting of death is sin. God will indeed be severe on those who have deliberately sinned against their neighbour as Jesus clearly describes in the parable of the unforgiving servant (Matthew 18:23ff) and with those whose virtue goes no deeper than that of the Pharisees, ‘who will die in their sin’ (John8:21).but for those who turn to him humbly confessing their sins, he is the Good Physician.

            We pray for our departed brothers and sisters that they may open themselves to the love of their Father. Jesus who died for them wants to save them at any cost.

Father, may all the faithful departed experience your love.