Episode Transcript
[00:00:12] Welcome to the Blessed Sacrament Homilies podcast, where our mission is to help everyone recognize and experience the presence of God. We hope you are nourished and encouraged by the Word. Thank you for joining us.
[00:00:26] The Lord be with you and with your spirit. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke. Glory to you, O Lord.
[00:00:37] Jesus journeyed to a city called Nain, and his disciples in a large crowd accompanied him.
[00:00:44] As he drew near to the gate of the city, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.
[00:00:56] A large crowd from the city was with her.
[00:01:00] When the Lord saw her, he was moved with pity for her and said to her, do not weep.
[00:01:09] He stepped forward and touched the coffin.
[00:01:14] At this, the bearers halted and he said, young man, I tell you, arise.
[00:01:22] The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.
[00:01:31] Fear seized them all and they glorified God, exclaiming, a great prophet has arisen in our midst and God has visited his people.
[00:01:44] This report about him spread through the whole of Judea and in all the surrounding region.
[00:01:52] The Gospel of the Lord.
[00:01:55] Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:01:58] What a different celebration All Saints is. All Souls is these days from when I was a kid.
[00:02:07] Those of you with gray hair or not too much hair will remember those days.
[00:02:14] It was always a significant day. On that day, the priest said three masses in a row. Usually it was in Latin.
[00:02:24] Go up to the altar, up steps, usually do the first Mass, finish it, come down and start over. Do a second Mass and then a third.
[00:02:34] And I think as a kid, I thought, and probably most Catholics did, that this was kind of a day to set free the imprisoned in purgatory, those who were paying for the imperfection in their lives and waiting to get into heaven.
[00:02:51] Well, now the feast is more like a celebration of Easter, isn't it? White vestments, joyful songs, and the hope and the trust that God raises up those who have died, that he saves those who have been touched by their suffering and death.
[00:03:11] I particularly like the gospel this morning, the story of that young man and the joy the mother must have felt to have her dead son restored.
[00:03:27] In those days, in that culture, a widow with no family left, her only son dead, was destitute, not just personally, but. But financially in every other way.
[00:03:43] And Jesus gave her back her son.
[00:03:48] One of the things that got me kind of hooked this year in looking at that reading was to think, what was it like for the kid, what happened when he died and when he was brought back to life.
[00:04:07] How did he experience that?
[00:04:10] Was it like he had fallen asleep and he just woke up in the morning?
[00:04:18] Or did he know he had died?
[00:04:20] Was there some activity going on inside him?
[00:04:26] We don't know.
[00:04:28] But I think the.
[00:04:32] The story makes me think, what happens to us when we die?
[00:04:37] Where do we go?
[00:04:40] Where do we stay?
[00:04:42] When do we experience the fullness of life that Jesus has promised to us?
[00:04:51] That young man in the story was touched by Jesus and raised up in All Souls Day. It's a time for us to reach out and touch those who have died, to raise them up in our minds.
[00:05:11] I don't think it's very fruitful to think of how somebody might have died 20, 30, 40 years ago and that they've been suffering in purgatory or waiting around in some kind of a limbo.
[00:05:26] I think God saves us all away as soon as we die.
[00:05:31] But I also think that God must let them somehow be aware of what's going on in our world, with our families and our friends.
[00:05:44] And I'm sure they must be filled with a joy that makes heaven what it is, at least partially because they know we are accompanying them.
[00:05:57] We haven't forgotten them.
[00:05:59] We remember them.
[00:06:02] And not worrying about timing, we still pray that God will bless them, fill them with joy, and have them ready to greet us someday when we die.
[00:06:17] I don't know what that will be like.
[00:06:19] Will it be like falling asleep and waking up to a better life, seeing all those we have known and loved or not loved, but should have or want to?
[00:06:33] What will it be?
[00:06:37] Those are mysteries. We'll have to wait to get the answer to that first for each of us.
[00:06:42] But I think this feast is a reminder that everybody I know, I would appreciate it. I think everyone would appreciate the fact that family, friends and even strangers remember them in prayer, lift them up to God.
[00:07:03] Jesus doesn't worry, nor his father, about the timing may have happened a long time ago that they died and were raised up in Jesus right after their death.
[00:07:17] We can wonder what that was like.
[00:07:20] But we can be sure. I think that it brings them greater joy knowing that we still remember. We still pray for them. We still want to accompany them on their continued life, their special life that is even greater than anything we can imagine.
[00:07:40] So we pray for the holy souls not to free them from punishment and torment, but in gratitude to God for who they were, for their life, for God saving them from their weaknesses and failures and faults and lifting them up into a great assembly.
[00:08:02] May this day then be a kind of an Easter for all we have known and loved. And may they find their joy in heaven increased by our remembering and our love for them.
