It has often been said that for Catholics every day is All Saints and All Souls Day. I think the reason we say this is because our faith has such a treasury of the saints, who we pray for and revere throughout the whole year, and because at every Mass we pray for the souls of all the faithful departed. Next Sunday, November 1st and Monday, November 2nd, we commemorate All Saints and All Souls Day. I invite you this week to reflect on each of these great feasts of our faith. When we say “All Saints”, we are not just referring to the saints in our Catholic tradition that have been canonized over centuries. Instead, this refers to all the saints living and deceased, and perhaps those of us who are “saints in training”. After all, each of us is called to be a saint. Can you think of your favorite saint? I know for many years, I have had a special love and devotion to St. Anthony. I ask for his intercession every day, not only for myself, but for all those I love. But then, there are many other saints that I come across daily, or good people trying to be saints. It may surprise you to know, some of those saints, attend Mass here at St. John the Baptist.
Now, similar to the way we think of saints, can you think of someone whose soul has touched your life? Who is that special person (or persons) who meant so much to you? When you think of them, what is it you remember the most? For instance, how did they smile? How did they laugh? Did you see them pray? How did they express their love for you? What were the things in this life they most enjoyed? Think of how they felt, how they spoke, how they sang or danced, or even cried. As you think of that person, I hope that you will embrace and cherish those memories anew. This is what All Souls Day invites us to do. It invites us to deepen our remembrances of those special people who we treasured here on earth. It also invites us to remember that they are never far away from us. Each time we pray for them, each time we remember them at Mass, this is called “the communion of saints” & we share in it.
A very wise and good priest once told me that on All Souls Day, he would often remember his mother and how she loved to cook. He said, “Now that she has died, I like to remember her on All Souls by cooking a meal for friends, and sharing that meal in their company. It was something my mother often did. She cooked for our family, she cooked for our neighbors, she cooked for our birthdays, she cooked for our anniversaries, she cooked for holidays, and we loved to share in the meals she made for us.” I know many people who love to visit the resting place of their loved one on All Souls Day. This is a beautiful Catholic tradition to visit a cemetery, and to say a prayer in remembrance. In addition to this beautiful tradition, I think All Saints and All Souls Day are also days when we can remember those who have gone before us by doing the very things that they enjoyed when they were with us. I imagine that even as we do those things—for example, cooking their favorite dish, playing their favorite song, saying their favorite prayer, planting their favorite flower—that this is a way that we continue the memory of all that they leave behind. It reminds us that in the Kingdom of God, we will someday be together again, and there we will see and know the splendor of God forever.