Today we celebrate the great feast of All the Saints and tomorrow we will commemorate all of our deceased loved ones and friends. Both feasts remind us of the reality of death but they also remind us of our hope of everlasting life.
Todays’ Feast of All the Saints is not intended to focus on those persons whom the Church has formally declared to be saints – persons of extraordinary virtue whom we are certain are now with God forever. Instead, today’s feast is intended to focus on all the good women and men who we are confident enjoy eternal life with Jesus Christ because of their fidelity to him and to his Gospel in this life. I would hope all of us have our own personal litany of saints – persons whose lives were a reflection for us of the life of Christ. They did not have to be perfect persons, but rather simply persons who made real for us the compassion of Christ, the mercy of Christ, the welcome offered by Christ, the consolation of Christ, and the gentleness of Christ. I can easily call to mind a dozen persons who were definitely saints of God – persons whose lives were for me an incarnation once more of the God who revealed Godself in Jesus Christ. They are persons who continue to shape my life and who remind me that it is possible to live the values of Jesus Christ in our day-to-day lives and that to do so is a blessing for our world.
All Souls Day invites us to remember all those who have died. These men and women may not shine in our lives as reflections for us of the life of Christ, but we remember them as persons with whom we shared our lives and whom we hope God has embraced as God’s own in death. We always have to remember that the mercy of God is greater than human sinfulness and God only desires life for us, not death. We would have to be very stubborn in our rejection of the way of God in order to lose the life that God wants each of us to enjoy. On All Souls Day, we ask God to take into his embrace all of his children who did the best that they could to live as sons and daughters of God. For each of us will need God’s mercy as well!

Fr. Mark Hallinan, S.J.