All Souls Day: 2nd November, 2018
Wisdom 3: 1-9; Romans 3: 5-11; Mark 15: 33-39, 16: 1-6
Yesterday we celebrated the memory of the saints...those among us who have gone before us all the way! They shine as they have reached the destiny prepared for them. They are the Triumphant Church, radiating the HOPE that Christ brought to humanity.
Today we keep the memory of those among us who have gone before us, but not yet all the way! They await the mercy of God, to join the band of those who share the glory of the Eternal Light. They are the Penitent Church, united with us in FAITH, the one faith in which we were all baptised, the one faith in which we have a duty to offer our prayers and suffrages.
Tomorrow onwards we are back to our daily living, as we make our way, amidst the struggles and temptations of the daily life. We are the Militant Church, fighting our way ahead on a daily basis, with LOVE - love for God who constantly accompanies us and love for brothers and sisters with which we accompany those who are around us.
It's all about relationship... we are One Church with the One Lord, with one baptism, one call and one destiny... all of us related to each other. Even the thought of death or of the dead, does not fill us with fear or anxiety, for we are all on the same journey at different stages of the course. The three tier Church is such a holistic view of our life on earth, that it renders every bit of our life and all its struggles so meaningful. It is within this framework of relationship that we think of those brothers and sisters of ours who have gone before us, signed with the same Holy Spirit, that they may receive the eternal reward they have always longed for. But that would be an incomplete exercise, if it does not challenge us to live our life with more hope and more love, here and now that our faith may throw its light on our concrete everyday.
We are all related! Let that be the message that the day offers us. Let us march on with love, with hope and with faith towards the eternal joy prepared for us.