October 31 – November 1, 2009
All Saints – (All Souls on Monday)
Revelation 7:2-14 First John 3:1-3 Matthew 5:1-12
With the demise of Daylight Savings Time occurring this weekend (we fall back one hour in Autumn…and we spring ahead in Spring…), the Solemnity of All Saints, followed on Monday with our ‘Commemoration of all the Faithful Departed’ (All Soul’s Day) is an apt manner of acknowledging the darkness that befalls us when someone we cherish dies. For all our faith-filled posturing and attestations of everlasting life, there is a starkness to death that refuses to be ignored. Gone is the opportunity for one more conversation, one more walk on the pier or road trip to Vegas.
Questions that have been held in abeyance…will wait longer for answers and plaintive words uttered in sorrow fail to satisfy the longing to be heard and understood. The advances of science have pulled back the curtain from our genetic components, mapped our DNA and peered every more deeply into the wondrous galaxies that lie far beyond our own…but the vast stillness that accompanies death remains untouched. What science has failed to quantify has found definition within our ‘soul’. Without measurable means we sense an unending quality to human life, an awareness that the mortal body is but a vessel of frail flesh and that our true identity is not perceivable with retina and cornea. On All Saints Day we review our ‘family portfolio’ of those who have lived our faith in ‘heroic ways’….not unlike looking at pictures of Aunts or Uncles who received Purple Hearts or Silver Crosses from the assorted wars. On Monday we open the floodgates for commemoration of all those who have enriched our lives and who have passed through the door of death. While the saints may have official designations and mythic status attached to them, on All Souls we honor people who went by the title of Mom or Dad or brother or sister or best-friend-forever, or wife or husband or son or daughter.
These titles alone make these people personal…and on All Soul’s Day we gently touch the spots in our hearts where their spirit continues to live…and to remember that with God, there are constant transformations, but no end to the lives he calls into existence. Those we loved…we may continue to love…with the safe knowledge that as they once loved us here on earth…they continue to love us still in heaven. We are part of one very large, mysterious and wonderful FAMILY…of the living…and of those who have passed through the door of death to live with God forever…as we will (God willing) someday do as well. In these tender days of remembrance, the traditional chant of the Church in praying assorted litanies rings loud and true….All Saints of God, all our Loved Ones who have died, PRAY FOR US!
Welcome to the wondrous month of November and thank you for sharing this All Saints/All Souls Weekend with our Corpus Christi Community. If you wish to enroll your own beloved dead in our special series of All Souls Masses you may find envelopes on the Concierge Shelves. With the arrival of November the Bulletin is filled with news of our upcoming Thanksgiving Feast (only three weeks away!!!) If you are new to our community…consider yourself invited because it is a wonderful and fabulous event!
The Bulletin is filled with other news, please take one with you as you depart. Concern America will be on site next weekend with third-world handcrafts…you may wish to plan a little extra time in your schedule. As we honor our beloved dead, let us cherish ever more strongly those who still inhabit our lives…and remember, you are loved! FKB
