Homily for All Souls – November 2, 2023
Introduction
When my mother died two years ago, she was the
closest person I know to die. Although
she had been sick for a while, her unexpected death, just two days before her
75th birthday was very difficult on me and my siblings and continues to be
so. Many people at the funeral told me
that "she is now in a better place."
But I wondered, how do they know? Moreover, they didn’t live with her. Her death has given me ample opportunity to
reflect in a very personal way, on death.
Scripture and Theology
Starting October 31st, yesterday November 1st
and today, November 2nd, we celebrate what might be called the
Triduum for the dead. And it is an
opportune time to reflect on the question “where is my mother now?”
We started the Triduum on 31st
October with Halloween. Although it was originally
a Christian holiday, “All Hallows Eve” (All Saints Eve), the secular festivity
of HALLOWEEN celebrates the departed who are lost; these are the ghosts. While this secular version is not without
entertainment value or even psychological benefit, it really offers me no
answer to the question about my mom’s destiny.
In fact, my faith in the promises of Jesus Christ, give me the hope that
my mother, through the many ways she tried to be a faithful disciple, is not
among the lost spirits emphasised or rather mocked at Halloween.
The second day of this triduum, ALL SAINTS
DAY, which we celebrated on NOVEMBER 1ST is a little more
promising. After all, my mother as we
all are, was set on the journey to sainthood at her baptism. That is what we heard St. Paul tell us in our
second reading today: “that we who were
baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death . . . were indeed
buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised
from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.
For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall
also be united with him in the resurrection” (Rm. 6).
And throughout her life as a disciple, as a
wife (for a brief period), as a nurturing mother, and a dedicated teacher, she
tried to be a saint. The numerous eulogies
from family and friends at her funeral attested to those qualities in her that
aspired to saintliness. And since All
Saints Day commemorates not just the canonized saints, but indeed all those who
are now “with God” and now “see him as he is” (1 Jn. 3:2), again my faith gives
me the hope that she can be counted among that “great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race,
people, and tongue. . . . [standing] before the throne and before the Lamb,
wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands” (Rev. 7:9).
But this is only a hope, and not a
certainty. I would be doing my mother a
disservice by ignoring all she taught me about the dangers of presumption, if I
were to presume that she is already a saint in heaven and therefore fail to do
for her what as a disciple and a son, I must do – pray for her.
And that is the purpose of the third day of
the Triduum, today, ALL SOULS DAY, on NOVEMBER 2ND. This day tells me that given her frail
humanity, we must pray for her. Most
boys idolize their mothers and I am no different. But as I have grown older, I have gradually
realized that she was not perfect. She
really tried to live by the Ten Commandments, the Two Great Commandments, the
Beatitudes, the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy and taught us her
children how to do so. I could never
have asked for a better mother, especially the single mother she was for most
of her life. She was basically both a
mother and a father to the four of us. But
she was still a fallible human being and so we pray for her on this day,
together with all the faithful departed.
I have received one more answer to the
question, “where is my mother now.”
Friends have intimated that my mother is now an angel, with expressions
like “she has earned her (angel’s) wings.”
Although a well-meaning answer, again, my Catholic faith tells me that
it is not correct. When God created my
mother, he did not create her to be an angel, which is a different type of
creature. He created her with a body and
soul (angels lack bodies), and through the saving work of Jesus Christ,
destined her to share in his very divine life, in body and soul. Therefore, while my mother might be in the
company of the angels, she might even be like them now (having shed the
limitations of the mortal body), my mother has never been, nor will ever be an
angel, except in a manner of speaking.
Christian Life and Conclusion
That is why for the rest of my life, I am
going to look for her among the faithful departed (The Church Suffering). Besides heaven itself, in what better place
could she be, than Purgatory, the anteroom to Heaven, where she is being
prepared for eternal life? That is why I
am asking you to join me so that we (The Church Militant – not Church
Belligerent) pray for her soul and the souls of the all the faithful departed,
that they might be admitted into the Lord’s company for eternity (The Church
Triumphant). Also, pray that both you
and I will persevere in faith, hope and charity, and join them in eternal life.
Although I have
selfishly used my mother as an example, what I have said applies to all our
departed mothers and fathers, our grandmothers and grandfathers, even our
children and siblings, and all our departed relatives and friends. What I have said should apply also for the
forgotten dead, those who have no one to pray for them, those who graves in the
cemeteries receive no visitors and no flowers.
May we be inspired by the
words we shall say in the Eucharistic prayer as we ask God to give kind
admittance to all our departed brothers and sisters. We shall then go on to say:
There we hope to enjoy forever the fullness of your glory, when you will wipe away every tear from our eyes. For seeing you, our God, as you are, we shall be like you for all the ages, and praise you without end.
Let this be our
prayer, not just today, but always.
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