This weekend something rare happens in our Church. The memorial of All Souls Day takes place on a Sunday. This is the only memorial that takes the place of a Sunday or Feast Day Mass. The reason is that it is important, death is not the end, and we pray for those that we know and don’t that they be with God in Heaven. Our readings this week point out a spiritual truth that needs to be deeply integrated into our lives. While the body decays and dies, the soul has a beginning and no end! Meaning that the part of us where our sense of self resides. The part of us that is responsible for recognizing and reciprocating love, namely our souls, live on. In the Apostles’ creed and through the witness of Jesus and Mary we believe that our bodies will also join us eventually. A stumbling block for many, this feast day also brings into focus purgatory. Purgatory is Heaven’s waiting room. It is where souls that have been redeemed wait to enter God’s Heaven. There are many works of theology dedicated to purgatory, helping us understand that it is not a place of punishment, but rather a time of purification. Imagine our actions reverberating down generations after we are gone. We cannot possibly know how an act of love, or hardness of heart will influence one person, let alone their ability to love. So like ripples on a pond, our selflessness and selfishness influence the world around us in ways we cannot know here and now. When we are gifted that eternal perspective, it will bring with it joy and sadness. Intimacy with God in Heaven is a place where guilt and sadness have no place, so we need a time of adjustment where we are purified from that pain. When we pray for the souls in purgatory, we are praying that they let go of those things that still keep them in sorrow and the residual guilt of sins long ago forgiven. They are destined for Heaven, just still in transit. This weekend take time and lift up your deceased loved ones, and people you have never met, that their time in transit would be healing. May the Love, Grace and Peace of God be with you, Fr. Adam
