Michele Kearney's Snuffysmith's Blog

Saturday, November 2, 2019

The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls)

John 6:37-40

Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus talks about raising us on the last day. Our faith is that God will clothe the soul in a new and higher body, what Paul calls a "spiritual body." Here we might rely on the musings of John Polkinghorne, the Christian physicist, who appreciates the soul as the "form" or pattern of the person. God remembers this "form," and then reconstitutes it at a higher level during the resurrection, much as the pattern of an article or a photograph could be preserved in a computer’s memory and then reproduced in a new way. Listen again to the words of Jesus in our Gospel today: "Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me . . ." As you pray for the souls of your beloved dead, take comfort in those words. They will be raised again. The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls) Lectionary: 668 Reading 1 Wis 3:1-9 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 away was thought an affliction and their going forth from us, utter destruction. 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 worthy of himself. As gold in the furnace, he proved them, and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself. In the time of their visitation they shall shine, and shall dart about as sparks through stubble; they shall judge nations and rule over peoples, and the LORD shall be their King forever. 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 his elect. Gospel Jn 6:37-40 Jesus said to the crowds: "Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. And 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. 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 on the last day."