"The Lord is My Shepherd; There is Nothing I shall Want"

Today's Mass Readings

All of the readings for today, All Souls Day, which commemorates all of the faithful departed, work together to emphasize the connectedness of all these faithful souls in the Communion of Saints. In the first reading from the Book of Wisdom, we see a reflection of God’s eternal care for the souls of the just. Wisdom mentions how the foolish thought these souls were dead, since their bodies had in fact died, and yet these people who have died live on with God. “They are in peace,” Wisdom tells us, even those who went through Purgatory: “because God tried them and found them worthy of himself. As gold in the furnace, he proved them.” In the reading from today’s Gospel, John shows Jesus promising eternal life, the resurrection from the dead, to all those who believe in Him, all who come following after Him, all whom the Father sent to Jesus. This is why Saint Paul is able to write, in today’s second reading from the Letter to the Romans, that, “we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death.” Writing further he explains, “We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of God the Father, we too might live in newness of life.” He proceeds to elaborate on the connection between our baptism and the resurrection promised to us founded upon Christ’s obedient suffering and death, as well as on His glorious resurrection.

This is why, as Psalm 23, or responsorial psalm for the day, explains to us that we should have no fear. We can make the words of the Psalmist our own, since we are in Christ. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” We read further, “Even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil; for you are at my side with your rod and your staff that give me courage.” This can also be translated as, “even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I shall fear no evil.” Even were we to be confronted with death itself, as we all shall be confronted some day, we have nothing to fear. For we have already died with Christ in our baptism. We shall rise with Christ as well after we die physically in the future. This is what All Souls Day is about. It is a day of hope.

Yesterday was All Saints Day, a feast of joy, celebrating what all of our elder brothers and sisters in the faith have accomplished, or better, what God has accomplished through and with all of them in Christ. We too can look forward to our union with them in heaven. Today we celebrate all the faithful who are departed, especially our own very dear loved ones. We will all join their number, and our celebration today is one of hopeful anticipation that death is not the end of the story but only the beginning of an eternal adventure in heaven with God, with the angels, and with all the faithful departed, the saints in heaven. As St. Paul tells us in his Letter to the Philippians: “For to me life is Christ, and death is gain” (1:21). To die is gain, but to live is to serve others as Christ did. We have far more to gain in death than we have to lose. Furthermore, we are already connected through Christ with all the faithful who have gone before us.

So, let us pray for all souls as they make their transition to eternity. And let us ask them to pray for us, as we continue our pilgrimage home to join them in heaven.

Jeff Morrow