All Souls Day 11/02/2025 Readings
How many of you have magnets on your refrigerator at home?
Why do the magnets stick to your refrigerator? Magnets stick to anything that has iron or steel in them. Your refrigerator door probably has iron or steel in it, so it's a perfect place to stick magnets. If they don't have anything to stick to, they start to lose their power.
If you take a magnet and put it in a place where it didn't have any iron or steel, after a while it would lose its magnetic power. It wouldn't work right anymore.
In order for magnets to keep their power, they need to stay stuck on something. We Christians are like magnets except we need “Someone” to stick to – Jesus Christ. [Sermons.com]
Today we celebrate All Souls Day. We remember those who have gone before to “the land of the living.” Today’s Commemoration is about “Trust & Hope” in the Lord and His promises. In the song Heaven, Home I Come we hear this haunting verse “Earth’s burdens never more to bear, in heaven I adore! Today, tomorrow, all are one, to praise You ever more.” The loss of a loved one comes with sorrow, the sorrow of Why?, Why now? Why in this manner? On this side of the grave there are no adequate answers.
The mystery of suffering is beyond our comprehension. Peter Kreeft in his book Making Sense of Suffering wrote, “The point of this life is not to be happy but to become real, like the Velveteen Rabbit; to be tamed as the fox says to the Little Prince, to become the person God can love perfectly, to satisfy God’s thirst for love.”
In our Reading from Wisdom we learned, “the souls of the just are in the hand of God ….they are at peace.” St. Paul reminds us that “Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts.” In John’s Gospel Jesus promises us “… that everyone who … believes … I shall raise him up on the last day.”
Our life is a gift, given by God not only to us but to those whose lives we touch & to those whose lives touch us. In death, we give back to God what we have done here on earth. As we commemorate All Souls, we remember in a particular way, All of the Faithfull Departed. The souls of our loved ones who have gone before now dwelling with God.
Today, the memories of them are in our hearts and on our minds. This commemoration reminds us that our time on earth is limited & that our own death along with the pain of saying good-bye to our loved ones is part of life. We live with & in the Easter promise of the empty tomb, and today we ask ourselves “When will I come to the end of my pilgrimage & enter the presence of God?” [Antiphon 1 Monday Week II)]
On a tombstone are written these words.
For those of you old enough remember Mr. Rodgers. Reflect on this insight he offered us, "All of us have special ones who have loved us into being. Would you just take, along with me, ten seconds to think of the people who have helped you become who you are?"
Sometime today offer a prayer of Thanksgiving for our departed loved ones, a prayer for their love and example for our lives.
May God Be Praised.
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