Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life. For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection. Anyone who has ever attended the funeral of a loved one knows the feeling of dislocation. How can our beloved be gone from us? The feast of All Souls is a reminder that they aren’t gone from us, just gone ahead of us. William Faulkner once wrote:, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” Those bonds of love that connected us in life are not severed by death. To this very day I am influenced by all that my parents meant to me even though they died decades ago. Today’s liturgy gives us the occasion to bring the faithful departed into our prayer. The mercy of God has purged them of whatever faults they might have had (the Catholic notion of purgatory) so that they can enter fully into the heavenly banquet. As they are, so we shall be because of the grace of Christ.
