All Souls Day Homily

This is the fourth in our series of homilies on the topic of Good News. There is really so much good news in our world. A week or so ago I was working in my office. It was late afternoon and the doorbell rang. I wasn’t expecting anyone. When I went to the door a parishioner was there. He immediately said, “Father I have some good news I need to share with you.” I invited him into the office for a chat.

He told me, “I was at the gym early in the morning a few days ago when I got a frantic call from my wife. She told me when she got up from bed, she found an entire side of her body had gone numb and she felt a tingling sensation. I told her to call 911 and I rushed home. The ambulance took her to Cape Cod Hospital where they ran a battery of tests. The tests discovered a suspicious mass on one side of her brain and several others on vital organs.”

He reached out to a trusted physician friend who put him in touch with a noted neurosurgeon at a Boston hospital. His wife was transferred there and after an examination the neurosurgeon suggested immediate surgery. He told our parishioner the tumor was in a sensitive spot where its proximity to vital nerves made it particularly challenging. The surgeon was confident he could remove the growth but wanted our parishioner and his family to know his wife could suffer paralysis if something went wrong.

After a four hour operation the surgeon came to the parishioner and told him everything had gone well. There was no nerve damage, all of the tumor was removed, the other suspicious shadows on vital organs were benign and his wife will completely recover. He told me, “Father, I’m convinced it was a miracle.” I’ll admit I got a little teary eyed. I said a prayer of thanksgiving with the husband, we gave each other a hug, and he was on his way. Any frustrations or disappointments I felt that day were gone. 

There is a lot of other good news. Nearly a hundred parishioners here at Holy Redeemer are members of small faith sharing groups. They come together on a regular basis to share reflections from scripture, talk about their reactions to Jesus message, and support each other in faith. It is having a great effect on our parish as a whole. When I greet people coming to Mass most of you smile at me. You seem to be happy you are here. It is the same as you leave. Most everybody seems happy to have come to church. That is good news.

Good news is news but bad news is even better. We don’t want to admit it but we go looking for bad news even more than good news. It is true. We actually seek out bad news for several reasons. Bad news has the ability to astonish and amaze us. An intense hurricane, longest lasting government shutdown, outrageous comments from politicians or celebrities all make an impression on us.

Bad news can also distract us from our own problems. When we hear about an incident in a faraway place, we breathe a sigh of relief that at least our situation isn’t as bad. We need to listen for bad news at times because it warns us to prepare for dangers coming our way. Bad news always grabs and holds our attention. 

We refer to the Bible’s stories about Jesus ministry on earth as gospels. The word gospel I have told you comes from a Greek word for good news or news that brings joy. The Good News is that God has visited his people and given them Eternal Life. One of those gospels written by the Apostle John sums the Good News up in just a couple of popular verses.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, 

so that everyone who believes in him might not perish

 but might have eternal life. 

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,

but that the world might be saved through him.

Our Christian calling is to grow in our appreciation of that Good News so we can be equipped to share it with our family, friends, and neighbors.

Face it though, not everyone considers the Gospels good news. They think it is bad news instead. Some of that feeling comes from their misunderstanding of the gospel. Others consider it bad news because it has been misrepresented to them by Christians. They have encountered Christians who make the gospel message less than believable. Their experience of Christianity has been influenced by members who are less than joyful, compassionate, and loving. 

We need to be people who express Christian ideals in our actions and words. That is why we place such emphasis on hospitality here at Holy Redeemer. We want everyone who walks through our doors to know we welcome them as our brothers and sisters whether they believe the good news or not. Next week we will be holding our Ministry Fair. Come to the fair and learn how you can share your gifts of time and talent in the parish. We especially want to bolster the layers of our hospitality ministry. If you can smile come and be a part.

Today our celebration is packed with Good News. We celebrate All Souls Day. All Souls Day is an annual Catholic celebration of our belief that the holy souls of our forebearers in faith are in the care and love of a compassionate God. A compassionate God working with them to transform them to enter into the fulness of the joy of Heaven. 

Today we are celebrating that during his ministry Jesus revealed a compassionate God who is active in the lives of the poor and vulnerable in our society. God is with us in our suffering. God wants to share eternal life with us. Eternal life is the full union of the human person with God. Sometimes that can make heaven sound like we are just standing around gazing up at God’s radiance. That can seem kind of boring. Eternal life is much more than just unending existence. It is the full union of the human person with God. It is living a personal relationship with God, through Jesus Christ and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In Heaven we will be very busy working with a Creator God in a most fulfilling way. 

When Jesus preached that good news it disturbed his world. The concept of an afterlife and an active God concerned about humanity wasn’t universally believed. Many Jews, especially the Sadducees, who included most of the religious leaders, didn’t believe in an afterlife. They were materialists who believed they only lived on in time through their descendants. In the Roman world the ascendent belief was Stoicism. That philosophy promoted a concept of an indifferent God who was apathetic towards humanity.

Jesus came and preached good news that was the polar opposite of that understanding. Jesus proclaimed a God who was compassionate to the needy. A God who is engaged in his creature’s lives as he was to the widow of Nain’s in today’s gospel.

Jesus preached detachment from this world. He taught we need to overcome the hooks of sin, like jealousy, resentment, pride, and stubbornness of heart that are the values of a material existence. Instead, we need to be faithful to a God who calls us to die to material values. We need to respond to God’s call out of self-centeredness and to accept the values of the Kingdom of Heaven, love, joy, humility, and forgiveness.

Today on All Souls Day we also celebrate a benevolent God who wants us to share God’s rule with us even if we have been sinful in this life. Upon our death we will undergo a particular judgement. God will determine if our lives were lived according to the model of Jesus Christ or not. Most of us will fall short to a degree. Those who have made an earnest effort will not be condemned but will need purification before we can fully stand in the radiance of the beatific vision of God in Heaven.

As Catholics we believe that time of purification is called Purgatory. Purgatory is not meant as a place of suffering. It is not a sort of prison where we are confined to await an appeal won by the prayers and entreaties of faithful Catholics still on earth. Purgatory isn’t punishment. It is the place of overwhelming beauty and the love of God where we will learn to desire God more and more as we are made ready to enter into God’s presence. It is where a loving God allows, we who are not quite completely faithful to our relationship with God, to set right what is wrong and complete what is lacking in our bond with God. 

Today’s good news is that our relationship with God has already been begun for those of us who have been baptized. Through baptism an unbreakable bond with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit has been established and regardless of our past faithfulness we can revive and strengthen our bond with God.

We do that through a relationship of prayer. If you don’t pray daily begin today. Find a time of day when you can quiet yourself in a quiet place. Take some deep breaths and invite God to speak to you. Make a real effort to listen to God. Try not to get distracted for as little as ten minutes at first. Build up the time as you practice prayer. Don’t become too discouraged if you get distracted. Maybe your distractions are things God want you to bring to prayer. If not take a deep breath and begin again. With persistence you will get there.

Make sure you are close to the Eucharist. As Catholics we believe the Eucharist to be the real presence of Jesus Christ, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. It is the source of Christ’s grace in our lives and gives us the strength to live lives pleasing to God. 

A prayerful sacramental relationship with God will help you realize that God notices you and knows you by name. It will help you come to realize, God cares about you, and no matter what you have done, or who you feel you are, God sees your full potential, and wants you to share all the joy and benefits of the Good News of Jesus Christ.