Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, D.D., J.C.L.
Bishop of Scranton
HOMILY
All Souls Day Mass – November 2, 2011
Yesterday, we celebrated a splendid feast – the Solemnity of All Saints – a day during the Church year on which we celebrate all those holy men and women who have embraced the life of Jesus in their own and who experience the fullness of God’s presence in the eternity of His heaven. A splendid day – a day of hope and promise for each of us.
Today, we celebrate a similar day, a quieter one, and a day that I would suggest has significant meaning for most of us – the Feast of All Souls – a day on which we remember all of the holy souls, all of those dear people who have been woven into our lives – who have passed from this world to the next and journey to God.
Today we put faces and names on those we honor and for whom we pray. And by that very fact and its connection to our lives, our celebration can bring sadness to our lives. It is never easy to let go of those whom we love. There is never a right time or reason. And because of that reality, it is essential that we see in this day the heart and substance of our faith as Christians – Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.
Today’s Gospel offers us some insight and consolation as we face life and death. Jesus says “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yolk upon you and learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart. And your souls will find rest for my yolk is easy and my burden is light.”
Jesus’ words are consoling words because they are real words. Notice that he doesn’t white wash life. He doesn’t say that if you’re a good person, if you pray, you will never have a cross to carry or a burden to bear. No. He says “Come to me with your struggles and pain … and I will give you rest.”
They’re consoling too because Jesus experienced life as we do. He was a good, innocent, loving man who very unfairly faced a cross and suffered and died.
I suppose God could have chosen to save the world in any way he wanted, but he specifically chose to have Jesus walk our world, live our lives, suffer and die with and for us … so that we in our suffering would have a God who understands – because through the incarnation, he became one like us.
Our faith also tells us that death was not the end for Jesus. Three days after he died, he rose and in that event promised the same life and gift of resurrection to all who live and die believing in him.
Our faith, connected to the resurrection, won’t necessarily take away the pain that comes from grief, but it does have the power to help us make sense of why we feel the presence of our loved ones, even in their passing – why we choose to gather in prayer for them today. It affirms what all of us believe, even if we cannot understand – that there is more to this world than we can see and touch.
Saint Paul says: “If we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over him.”
And so we gather in hope today as we pray for our loved ones who have died, as we feel their presence and as we affirm our belief in the power of Christ’s resurrection. And because we believe in the power of the resurrection and life eternal, our prayers for our brothers and sisters who have died and who journey to a full experience of the glory of the Lord link them to us and us to them – just like our prayers in this Cathedral link us one to another as we gather at the table of the Lord to celebrate the Eucharist.
In a few moments, we will proclaim the mystery of our faith as we do every time we gather for mass, “Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.” … Christ HAS died. Christ IS risen. Christ WILL come again. And so will we who walk with faith in the power of Christ – a faith which knits us together as one in this life and into eternity.
