Celebrating All Saints and Commemorating All Souls

Celebrating All Saints and Commemorating All Souls    

Toward the end of the Nicene Creed we recite on Sunday we say “…I believe in the communion of the Saints…”  So what is the “Communion of the Saints”?  This term describes both our connection TO and our friendship WITH the Holy Ones of God who fought the good fight and ran the race and kept the faith till their journey on this side of heaven came to an end. In a Relay Race, when a member of your team finishes their leg of the race they hand on the baton to the next runner on the team and then spend the rest of the time cheering their team on from the sidelines! Scripture says: “…Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Hebrews 12:1).  The Feast of All Saints reminds us that we have a cheering section in heaven!   

Today, November 2^nd, we observe All Souls Day.  If we celebrate the BEST on All Saints Day we commemorate the REST on All Souls Day. We shift our focus from rejoicing with the ALL STARS on “Team Jesus” to PRAYING for the bench; the 2^rd or 3^rd string, even those that never bothered to try out for the team!  The scriptures tell us today that “The Souls of the just are in the hands of God” (Wisdom 3:1).  Today, we commend to God even those who were NOT just!  Why?  Because they came from families like yours and mine; from the wombs of mothers who loved them and from fathers who miss them.  It is not our place to determine or declare the limits of how far God’s mercy extends for any human being that has walked this earth.  The Gospel tells us that it is to Jesus alone that this right has been extended: "…the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son" (John 5:22). Besides, being that we are recipients of God’s unmerited favor ourselves, we are hardly in a position to cast a vote on the eternal fate of other sinners. In fact, God does not ask us to weigh-in at all; only Jesus.  The purpose of the Church Universal coming together to commemorate All Souls to God is to do just two things: To Hope and to Pray; and to do so with conviction and fervency!  We, believers, replace despair with hope and worry with prayer; and we do so to our last day and final breath so that those we leave behind will, hopefully, do the same for us!  Eternal Rest grant unto them O Lord and may your perpetual light shine upon them forever. Amen.