What happens when we die? ... In dying we are born into eternal life.

On Thursday, October 9, I visited my sister, Mary Elizabeth, who is 13 months older than myself, she had just entered home hospice and has been dealing with MS for 45 years.  It was clear she was soon going home to the Lord in a few days.  I anointed her, sharing with her the Sacrament of the Sick.  I kissed her and told her I loved her.  My sister, in her frail body and beautiful eyes, expressed her love for me.

The following Thursday, October 16, I celebrated her funeral liturgy entrusting my sister to the fullness of God’s eternal life.  To preside and preach at my sister’s funeral liturgy, while very difficult, is what my sister wanted and I certainly counted it a privilege to pray my sister into the fullness of God’s life.

 I prayed with her husband Don of 52 years, her children, Donna, Mary Ellen, and Mark, and her seven grandchildren, my brother, and my sisters that we would experience the peace that only God can give as we mourned my sister Sue (that was her nickname) in her going home to God.

My sister’s death confirmed in me once again that faith in Jesus does not make death easy, but makes it meaningful if viewed with the eyes of faith.  For those who believe, death is not the end but a beginning of a whole new kind of life.  It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Today we celebrate the Feast of All Souls.   We have celebrated Halloween, All Saints’ Day, and now we celebrate All Souls Day.  On Halloween our question was:  Who am I going to be on Halloween.  Yesterday on All Saint’s Day, we ask:  “How am I going to be a saint?  How am I going to live as a disciple of Jesus?  Today on All Souls’ Day, we wonder, “What happens when we die? Where do they go?”

While we naturally have questions about what happens when we die,  today’s feast is about the hope we have in God’s promise of eternal life.  How does my Catholic faith sustain me in my time of loss?  And how does your Catholic you  in your time of loss?

We gather on this Feast of All Souls to remember our loved ones who have gone home to God.  Yes, we need to face the reality of death.  Death of a loves leaves an emptiness.  We experience a loss that deeply touches our hearts and our spirits.  We also stand as a people who believe in life, the life of Jesus Christ.  With a faith that comes from the life of Jesus that is within us, we are a witness to hope and to love that are gifts of the Risen Lord to us.

In today’s first Scripture reading from the Book of Wisdom, “The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them.  They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing way was thought an affliction.  But they are in peace.  For if before men, indeed, they be punished, yet is their hope full of immortality; chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worth of himself.”

Yes, it is our faith that says the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and they are at peace.  And for us, the psalmist says:  “The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want…Though I walk in the valley of darkness, I fear no evil, for you are with me.”

Yes, death can seem like the darkest of the dark valleys of life, but the word of the Lord is to fear no evil as the Lord is with us both in the green pastures as well as the dark valleys of life.

There is the wonderful story of a young boy who was watching a sculpturer working on a large block of marble.  The chips of marble were flying in whatever which direction.  The boy became bored after a while and went away.  A week later the boy returned and saw a magnificent lion that was formed out of the block of marble-- the work of the sculpturer.  The young boy then asked the artist:  How did you know the lion was inside the block of marble.

The genius of the sculpturer was that he could see the lion in his imagination and in the block of marble.  In a similar way, we, in faith, view the reality of death and see in it the possibility of new life.  Death is not a defeat.  With a spiritual sightedness, death is the birth into the fullness of eternal life.

As I looked at the frail body of my sister Sue, I knew this was not the end.  She was soon going to be home with God.  Indeed, this a greater miracle than the genius of the sculpturer who could fashion a beautiful lion out of a block of marble.

In the Gospel, Jesus said:  “Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me…  For 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 up on the last day.”

The God revealed by Jesus is not a vengeful God.  Rather, God the Father is a loving God.  He even sent His Son to live and die for us, showing us his infinite love. 

Jesus declares, far from rejection, resurrection and eternal life await anyone who comes to me.

As we gather to celebrate the Eucharist on this Feast of All Souls, we gather as a people who are reminded again and again that our future is full of hope. This is God’s promise to us.  We gather to rejoice in God’s infinite mercy and unconditional love.

 

In this Sacrament of the Eucharist, we gather to celebrate the paschal mystery – the mystery of the Lord’s dying and rising.  It is through the experience of the cross and death that Jesus enters into the fullness of His Risen Life.  So too for us who are the disciples of Jesus, the fullness of sharing in the Lord’s risen life is preceded by the experience of the cross and death.

It is in the Eucharist that we now experience the power of the crucified-risen Jesus.  He helps us realize that Christian death results in heavenly life.  Earthly sadness will be transformed into eternal joy.