Walking with Jesus on the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed

For Sunday, November 2, 2025

Wisdom 3:1-9, Romans 5:5-11, John 6:37-40


It is unusual that we celebrate the feast of All Saints on a Saturday and All Souls on a Sunday. All Saints is a Holy Day of Obligation and All Souls is not. This year All Saints is not a holy day, so All Souls Day is the weekend celebration of the Church.
  
What is important is that all of us have family in heaven, and all of us have family who have passed on from this life and to the Lord, waiting to be welcomed into heaven. This waiting place is known as purgatory. Let us look at these goals Jesus explained and promised everyone.
  
From way back I remember the Catechism answer to why God created you, me, and everyone:

God created me to know Him, love Him and serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in eternal life in heaven. 

God is one, true, living being — supremely holy, unique, and omnipotent. God is above human understanding; a pure spirit, an absolutely loving being who is intimately concerned with His creation.  

God has made all things out of nothing and keeps them in existence.

God has made each human being in the divine image with a supernatural destiny. God desires our happiness and is faithful to us even when we reject Him.  

So let’s put a bottom line on this:

God loves each of us all the time. Why? Because out of love He created each of us to love.

Life has meaning. We search for it and God is with us each moment. We want happiness — but is it the way WE want it, or is it centered on God who is love? We need to be love.

The Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament reveal that God is involved in our lives. God is everywhere, closer to us than we are to ourselves, and God will never abandon us.

So if it's about God — God who is love — and love is heaven, where Jesus promised He has a place for everyone in His creation — do I want to go there? That is up to each person. Do I love? Do I want to love? Or do I just say I know love? 

Every person in Heaven is a saint, whether canonized or not. A saint is to be holy — a saint is a good person. Saints are people who always choose the better of two courses open to them. Look at the special people in your life. Who are the ones you’ve considered holy? What made them holy? Being kind, considerate, caring for others, helping the hurting? Don’t just imagine them at this moment in time — were these special people imitators of what you think Jesus would be like if you met Him along the street? What stood out about them? Was it their real, all-consuming care, concern, love, and ministry to you in your pain? Did they make you feel that you were important to them? Did they make you understand what love and caring was? They were Jesus to you at that moment. They were love. You saw Jesus in them. Heaven is theirs! 

By our baptism we are given a rich inheritance: We have died with Christ to sin and we have risen with Him to new life. Nice words — but if we are honest we have to admit that we don't always live out that gift. We do not fully die to sin; rather, we hang on to the sins we “like” which could end up clinging to us. We may be living what a saint is while giving in to our baser nature, living lives of selfishness and greed, hatred, getting even, immorality. We lose our battle with the forces of evil in the world and we “settle” for the easier road. And what happens? While one may not have turned completely away from the goodness of God, they may waver around, not being faithful either. Is such a person lost or saved? Well, here is where God really shines: In God there is mercy in abundance. When, where and how, we don’t know. All we know is that the loving kindness of God far surpasses any infidelity in which we are guilty. We do not deserve this mercy, but then again, we have never deserved God’s mercy. It is a gift freely given.

The feast of All Saints is where we are called and God helps us every inch of the way. Do I let Him? The Feast of All Souls is not a feast of sadness but one of great hope and confidence. We entrust our dead to God because we know they are really God’s dead. We know that if we have loved them, God has loved them more. They are in God’s care and God will lead them to peace. Lord, you promise us heaven — and You daily give us help to choose!

Let us pray:

God of Care and Mercy, today we come to You in prayer — not just for ourselves, but for all of our beloved ones who have died. We remember them imperfectly, but You know them perfectly. Gather them all in the arms of Your mercy and gather us, too. May our prayers for them help us to remember one another as Your people, whether living or dead. You have called us to love — it’s hard, but it’s the only way You’ve shown us that works. Forgive me … love me … care for me. Lord God, have mercy on me, a sinner trying to be Your loved one. Help. Thanks. Amen.