Reflection
Wisdom 3: 1-9
Psalm 23
Romans 6: 3-9
John 6: 37-40
Today our Church celebrates All Souls Days, a time set apart to remember all of those who have gone from this world before us and a time to remind ourselves that we too will someday pass from this world. St Benedict reminded us that day by day, we should remind ourselves that we will someday die. Now, that is not meaning that we should be overly obsessed with our own death, but rather adopt a keen sense that we are dust and will return to dust.
We are all called to live our lives by the two great commandments that we heard in Mass last Sunday – love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength; and love others the way we want to be loved. When we live our lives in that way, we need not fear death but rather grasp the words of our first reading today 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 away was thought an affliction and their going forth from us, utter destruction. But they are in peace.”
The best definition of love is from St. Thomas Aquinas – want, will and work for the good of the other person. Desiring the good for others means we continue to desire the good for others even after they have taken their last breath in this world. That is where being an atheist completely falls apart. Loving someone has to mean more than just wanting them to be 6 feet under and then that’s it…no more love. It is much more appropriate to desire eternal peace and happiness for them – just like God desires.
Is there someone special to you for whom you have not prayed in a while? And…is there someone you really did not like who may be waiting in purgatory and may really made need your prayers?
Smile at God today!