October 30-31, 2010
Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
Wisdom 11:27-12:2 Second Thessalonians 1:11-2:2 Luke 19:1-10
Death came slowly to Mom. It took her mind in Alzheimer’s and transformed her with dementia and finally allowed her to pass from what she had become and return to the hopes and dreams she had once been. ‘Uncle Joe’, who was not really my uncle but was indeed named Joe, was thrown through the windshield of his car on a highway in Wyoming and languished in a Cheyenne hospital before expiring from his injuries. He used to slip $5 inside the Rollo Candy wrappers he would give me at Halloween…shades of Little Christmas/Epiphany!
My maternal grandfather ‘Peter’ was buried in a pauper’s grave after suffering a stroke and eventually dieing in a state asylum, from all reports, unattended and discarded due to his marital infidelities. Darryl was but 19 when we buried him, a bad grade spiraling him to his leap of death. An Eagle Scout and accomplished soul, he rests with the ring given me at my ordination, a token of faithful friendship. With but three weeks of this liturgical year remaining to be celebrated, on this ‘Hallowed Eve’ of All Saints and All Souls Days we pause to tenderly consider those who have helped our lives be what they are, and who now rest eternally from their labors.
For some this is a topic best avoided, for others something of a macabre fascination, for a person in relationship with Jesus…the completion of the journey begun as we were ushered forth from our mother’s wombs. Presumably everyone gathered within this Grand Hall has experienced the ‘loss’ of someone cherished and/or loved.
Our rich tradition as Catholic-Christians is not to turn away or whistle a distracting tune, rather, in these deepening days of autumn we pause to consider the myriad implications of death, an event which has claimed all who have lived before us and which will someday come knocking at our own doors too. With All Saints Day we consider the spiritually heroic individuals who, throughout history, have parted the mysterious curtain veiling God’s face.
Within the lives of the Saints we catch glimpses of heroic faithfulness, the transforming power of love, the sacrifices required within relationship. All Souls Day brings us up close and personal with the memories of those within our own circles who have died. Mothers and fathers, uncles and sisters, brothers and aunts, friends and husbands, wives and children; they live in our memories and stories we softly recount.
Some deaths make sense and come peacefully; others are unexpected, crude and ruthless. Nonetheless, knowing that death is a necessary passage through which we all must pass, we Catholic-Christians wipe our eyes and use these days to ponder the imponderable, to mourn afresh and ultimately come to a deeper appreciation for the gift of life with which God called us into existence.
And so we honor the heroic and the everyday, the vaunted and the nobody’s….who will always be somebody because they belonged to us. Who are those who, while reading this Worship Aid, immediately leapt to your mind? Who are those who have died with whom you are at peace with their passing? Who are those whose death still haunt and wound? Who are those whose death you dread/fear. Who are those whose lives transform yours and who will say the same of you? And where, in all of this death and life, is God? May those whose faces swirl in your imagination rest in peace. +
Thank you for joining with our Corpus Christi Community this weekend as we anticipate All Saints and All Souls Days. If you wish to add the names of your own beloved dead to our Masses of Remembrance in November you may find the envelopes on the Concierge Shelves.
Next Weekend CONCERN Third World Hand Arts will be present after all the Masses offering a variety of goods for your consideration. With the approach of ADVENT, Paulist Press Bookstore will be present on November 20-21 to make your Advent devotional purchases that much easier! Please take a Bulletin with you as you depart….there is news of our approaching Parish Family Thanksgiving Dinner on the 21st…and some of the new ways we will be allowing tables to be set-up. Also…don’t forget, Daylight Savings Time ENDS next weekend…set your clocks BACK one hour on Saturday night!! As you go about celebrating All Hollow’s Eve with assorted traditions (and dare we say perhaps even costumes???) remember, you are loved. FKB
