Most Reverend Vincent Long Van Nguyen OFM Conv DD STL, Bishop of Parramatta
Readings: Isaiah 25:6-9; Philippians3:20-21; Matthew 27: 42-48
2025 All Souls Day: Renewing our commitment to live the paschal mystery
Dear friends,
One of the most fundamental features of our Catholic faith is the belief in the communion between the living and the dead. For this reason, we celebrate All Saints and All Souls one after the other. The Saints remind us that we are called to live the Beatitudes of Christ and to bring his kingdom vision to fulfilment. In honouring the saints, we are inspired to strive for the best version of ourselves. This is what Christian holiness is all about. It is not so much in doing the extraordinary things as in living the ordinary lives with the best possible spirit.
Today we express our communion with those who are still in the process of purification before the beatific vision. We remember them in the celebration of All Souls. The bonds of love between the living and the dead are not broken by death. Our love for them and their love for us endure. Sadness, sorrow, grief may fill us the living, but that is a reminder of their presence and love in our lives.
The Word of God today gives us comfort, hope and strength as we move forward in our pilgrimage of faith. In the first reading, Isaiah speaks prophetically of the renewal of Israel through the pain of the exile. He maintains that God will remake a battered nation and a humiliated people. A veil of mourning will be removed and a banquet will be prepared for the poor and the remnant faithful. This is a metaphor for the restoration of Israel and the liberation of the people from the Babylonian oppression. It is also a metaphor for the triumph of God’s plan in which we like the faithful exiles or the remnants of Israel are called to participate. We are comforted and strengthened by the hope of the ultimate triumph of God’s love over evil, grace over sin, light over darkness and life over death.
Isaiah’s prophecy is not about some pie in the sky or a utopia. The real challenge here for Israel is to be faithful to the vision that God committed them to ever since the exodus from Egypt. That vision is a vision of an alternative society where the poor and the vulnerable are dignified, where there is no injustice and oppression. The journey or the return to the Promised Land was not so much a physical as a spiritual exercise. To make Israel a model society and to make every believer a member of this ideal society is indeed a life-long project. Ours like the Israelites’ response to this call to mission is not fear, resistance, despair and defeat. It must be faith-filled, humble, joyful and unwavering commitment.
The Gospel speaks of the triumph of God through the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus. Mark, the earliest evangelist does not put any sugar coating over the bitter events of Good Friday. He describes them in real, confronting and shocking terms. Jesus dies forlorn, abandoned and in total despair. There is no voice of comfort and approval from heaven. There is no sense of accomplishment and closure. There is just a lone cry of “My God my God, why have you abandoned me?”. We are shrouded by sadness and despair.
However, as we listen more deeply, we begin to catch a glimpse into the depths of God’s revelation precisely at the moment of utter vulnerability. It is through the cross and even death itself that the greatest love was revealed. It was not evil that had the upper hand. It was God’s unflinching fidelity, his unconditional love for the world in Jesus that brought about the triumph of love over hatred, good over evil. We followers of Christ are to live life to the full by surrendering to the process of defeat, suffering and dying. That is the path of discipleship, the path of the Beatitudes, of love in the face of hatred, of joy in suffering for the cause of right and of life in giving itself away for the beloved.
Dear friends,
Our faith assures us that love is eternal, that the bonds of love can never be severed. We continue to be united to our loved ones who have died. This is the insight behind what we confess each week as our belief in the “communion of saints”. Without denying the reality of physical death, we affirm our eternal connection with our loved ones.
Some of us here are still carrying the memory of a deceased spouse, parent, child, or best friend deep in your hearts. Whatever the situation, you know the pain of loss. You are keenly aware of the grief we experience at the death of a loved one. You know how hard it is to say goodbye, to re-engage with life when there is a gnawing emptiness within, a gaping wound which awaits healing.
Our lives are a reflection of God and his love. Those who have passed whom we remember today somehow reflected that love. Whether one month, six months, a year, 10 or even 50 years, they live on in our minds and hearts. The bonds of humanity are not broken by death. “The life and death of each of us has its influence on others” says St Paul. May our memory of them and their communion with us continue to give meaning, purpose and direction to our lives. May Christ the Way, the Truth and the Life guide us on our pilgrim way until the day we are united with all our deceased loved ones in his Kingdom.
