Today the Church celebrates the Feast of All Souls, also called the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed as it does every year on November 2. As a result we (St. Raymond Parish, Dublin, CA) are celebrating the Feast of All Souls for all weekend masses. �The obligation to celebrate All Saints is dispensed for Saturday, but we will use the All Saints readings at the Saturday morning liturgy.
As Christians we believe that life is not ended at the moment of death but merely changed. We believe that our relationship with Christ, the Lord, and the Father Who sent Him to us continues even after death. The point to this celebration of All Souls is two fold: Firstly, we need to keep aware of our own mortality and what it really means in terms of eternity and secondly, we take the opportunity to commend our departed relatives and friends to God and invoke the Lord�s mercy upon them.
First Reading: Wisdom 3:1-9
1The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them.
2 They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction
3 and their going forth from us, utter destruction. But they are in peace.
4For if before men, indeed, they be punished, yet is their hope full of immortality;
5 Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worthy of himself.
6 As gold in the furnace, he proved them, and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself.
7In the time of their visitation they shall shine, and shall dart about as sparks through stubble;
8 They shall judge nations and rule over peoples, and the LORD shall be their King forever.
9 Those who trust in him shall understand truth, and the faithful shall abide with him in love: Because grace and mercy are with his holy ones, and his care is with the elect.
NOTES on First Reading:
* 3:1-12 This section deals with the idea of the suffering of the just. The writer holds that although the just seem to have died, in fact, they are alive with God. The suffering that appeared to many to be punishment was actually a form of education and a means of perfection.
* 3:1-8 The early church often applied these verses to the martyrs and later to all the righteous.
* 3:1 �In the hand of God� means �under God�s protection.�
* 3:2 Affliction refers to Isaiah 53:4.
* 3:3 Peace refers to Isaiah 57:1-2.
* 3:4 This is the first use of the word, immortality, in the Old Testament.
* 3:6 Offerings here is intended to invoke the image of the holocaust offerings in which the victim is completely consumed by fire. See Isaiah 53:7-10.
* 3:7 Visitation was often used to mean God�s intervention. (Same word is used in Isaiah 10:3) Here it refers to God�s loving judgment of those who have been faithful to him but later in Wisdom 14:11 the same word is used to refer to the punishment of the wicked at God’s final judgment. See also Wisdom 3:13.
* 3:7-9 The language of these verses is meant to indicate eventual vindication and approval of the righteous by God.
Second Reading: Romans 5:5-11
5Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the holy Spirit that has been given to us.
6For Christ, while we were still helpless, yet died at the appointed time for the ungodly.
7Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die.
8But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.
9How much more then, since we are now justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath.
10Indeed, if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, once reconciled, will we be saved by his life.
11Not only that, but we also boast of God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
NOTES on Second Reading:
* 5, 1-11: Popular piety frequently construed reverses and troubles as punishment for sin; cf Jn 9,2. Paul therefore assures believers that God’s justifying action in Jesus Christ is a declaration of peace. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ displays God’s initiative in certifying humanity for unimpeded access into the divine presence. Reconciliation is God’s gift of pardon to the entire human race. Through faith, one benefits personally from this pardon or, in Paul’s term, is justified. The ultimate aim of God is to liberate believers from the pre-Christian self as described in chs 1-3. Since this liberation will first find completion in the believer’s resurrection, salvation is described as future in 5. 10. Because this fullness of salvation belongs to the future it is called the Christian hope. Paul’s Greek term for hope does not, however, suggest a note of uncertainty, to the effect: “I wonder whether God really means it.”
Rather, God’s promise in the gospel fills believers with expectation and anticipation for the climactic gift of unalloyed commitment in the holy Spirit to the performance of the will of God. The persecutions that attend Christian commitment are to teach believers patience and to strengthen this hope, which will not disappoint them because the holy Spirit dwells in their hearts and imbues them with God’s love ( 5 ) .
* 5, 7: In the world of Paul�s time the good person is especially one who is magnanimous to others.
OR
Second Reading: Romans 6:3-9
3Or are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.
5For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection.
6We know that our old self was crucified with him, so that our sinful body might be done away with, that we might no longer be in slavery to sin.
7For a dead person has been absolved from sin.
8If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.
9We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over him.
NOTES on Second Reading:
* 6, 1-11: To defend the gospel against the charge that is promotes moral laxity (cf 5, 508), Paul expresses himself in the typical style of spirited diatribe. God�s display of generosity of grace is not evoked by sin but, as stated in 5, 8, is the expression of God�s love, and this love pledges eternal life to all believers (5, 21). Paul views the present conduct of the believers from the perspective of God�s completed salvation when the body is resurrected and directed totally by the holy Spirit. Through baptism believers share the death of Christ and thereby escape from the grip of sin. Through the resurrection of Christ the power to live anew becomes reality for them, but the fullness of participation in Christ�s resurrection still lies in the future. But life that is lived in dedication to God now is part and parcel of that future. Hence anyone who sincerely claims to be interested in that future will scarcely be able to say, �Let us sin so that grace may prosper� (cf 1).
* 6:3 The rhetorical question introduces the idea that the readers should already know this basic tenet of the apostolic teaching. Paul refers to Christian baptism in which the imagery is most easily understood in terms of immersion but it is not certain that early Christian practice always involved immersion.* 6:3 The rhetorical question introduces the idea that the readers should already know this basic tenet of the apostolic teaching. Paul refers to Christian baptism in which the imagery is most easily understood in terms of immersion but it is not certain that early Christian practice always involved immersion.
Paul�s language, however, involves far more than just an image or use of bookkeeping terms. For Paul, baptism was the introduction of the believer into a new relationship with Christ, involving a union with Christ�s suffering and dying. Paul emphasis that the Christian is not simply united with Christ Who won the victory over sin and death but rather he/she is united with Him in the very act by which He won that victory. Thus a believer is dead to sin, having become associated with Christ at the very time in which Jesus formally becomes the Savior.
* 6:4 The resurrection is ascribed to the Father and specifically to the Father�s glory. To some extent this parallel the Old Testament miracles of the Exodus (15:7,11; 16:7,10) which were ascribed to Yahweh�s “Glory” (kabod). Later Paul seems to indicate a role for the Holy Spirit in the resurrection event (Rom 8:11).
* 6:5-8 These verses say about the baptized Christian what Paul will say about Christ in Verses 9-10.
* 6:6 It is not only the material body as distinguished from the soul that is referred to here as being crucified with Christ but rather the whole of an earthly being dominated by a proneness to sin.
* 6:8 We believe because this new life can not be known by the senses.
* 6:9 There is a profound difference between the previous life which Jesus had and the new life He has after the resurrection. The same spirit or life giving principle will also provide new life to believers.
Gospel Reading: John 6:37-40
37Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me,
38 because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me.
39And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it (on) the last day.
40For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him (on) the last day.
NOTES on Gospel:
* 6:37 Bede, the Venerable said of this verse: ” All, He said, absolutely, to show the fullness of the number who should believe. These are they which the Father gives the Son, when, by His secret inspiration, He makes them believe in the Son.” Thus we do not come to Jesus of ourselves but rather we are drawn to him by the Father. This statement may be intended, at least, in part to contrast with the Jewish decision to drive out those of their number who accept Jesus (9:34-35).
* 6:38 Jesus� dedication to following the will of the Father is a primary theme of the gospel tradition.
* 6:39 Jesus accepts us as gifts to Him from the Father and will preserve us and safeguard us until He presents us back to the Father after lifting us up on the last day. This thinking is hinted at in the statement of 1Cor 15:24.
* 6:40 This verse may be an editorial expansion intended to harmonize the ideas of “having” eternal life now and yet “being raised” on the last day (John 5). This was a difficult pair of ideas to grasp for many in the ancient world.
Scripture text: New American Bible with revised New Testament copyright © 1986,1970, Confraternity of Christian Doctrine.
Commentary Sources:
Vince Del Greco
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary (1990) (Eds. Brown, Fitzmyer & Murphy)