This year we interrupt the normal cycle of readings and prayers in Ordinary Time to celebrate All Souls Day. This feast was added to the calendar because people had a sense that some of their loved ones might need a boost to get into heaven! They weren’t bad people but they weren’t exactly good either. Perhaps our prayers will push them over the line. By happy coincidence (providence?) this year was declared a Holy Year of Hope by Pope Francis before he died. Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. We have hope that God will find a way to redeem even those on the margins. C.S.Lewis said that in the end there will be only two kinds of people: those who say to God “thy will be done” and those to whom God says, “thy will be done.” Redemption is not, after all, an accomplishment on our part, a reward for job well done, but a gift from God. Jesus died so that we might live. Our prayers for the dead are not some kind of payment, like a fine levied to someone who was speeding. Rather, they are an opening up to receive what God wishes to give because we trust that what God gives will flow from the love God has for us. We pray for the Holy Souls because we are among them, those who rely on God’s grace and mercy as the true entrance fee to heaven.
