Breaking Open the Word

By James Cavanagh

Nov. 2: All Souls Day

Scripture readings:
• Wisdom 3:1-9
• Psalm 23
• Romans 5:5-11
• John 6:37-40

Theme: “Are you saved?”  This is a question St. Paul would never have asked; it’s foreign to the Catholic way of thinking. Instead, Paul talks about being “justified by the blood of Christ” and “reconciled to God through the death of his Son.”  Because of this, Paul says, “we will be saved.”  Because we are sinners who have been justified by Christ and reconciled to God we can face death with the assurance of hope of future salvation. As the title of Pope Benedict’s second encyclical says, we are “Saved in Hope.” And this hope pertains not only to ourselves, but to all the faithful departed who we remember this Sunday. Finally, the first reading reminds us of something very important; something many people either don’t believe, or just don’t think about: the immortality of the soul.  We are destined to live forever; and the way we live today and the decisions we make will affect our final destination. “The souls of the just,” it says, “are in the hand of God.”

Key verse: “The souls of the just are in the hand of God … their hope if full of immortality” (Wis 1:1, 4).

“Catechism of the Catholic Church”: We firmly believe, and hence we hope that, just as Christ is truly risen from the dead and lives for ever, so after death the righteous will live for ever with the risen Christ and he will raise them up on the last day” (No. 989).

Pope Benedict XVI: “In the communion of souls simple terrestrial time is superseded. It is never too late to touch the heart of another, nor is it ever in vain. Our hope is always essentially also hope for others; only thus is it truly hope for me too. As Christians we should never limit ourselves to asking: how can I save myself? We should also ask: what can I do in order that others may be saved and that for them too the star of hope may rise? Then I will have done my utmost for my own personal salvation as well” (“Spes Salvi,” 48).

Application:  On this last Sunday before an important national election our readings remind us of two things: First, we remember those who have gone before us; those who lived, worked, sacrificed and died in the hopes of making our lives, and our nation, better. In particular we remember those who have died in the peace of Christ, whose “hope is full of immortality.” Second, this week’s readings remind us that that our ultimate hope is not of this world; it does not lie with any candidate, party or platform. “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ,” Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “we are of all men most to be pitied” (1 Cor 15:19).