The Feast of All Souls, November 2, 2020

John 5:25-29

At that time, Jesus said to the multitudes of the Jews, “Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is here, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear shall live. For as the Father has life in Himself, even so He has given to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He has granted Him power to render judgment, because he is Son of Man. Do not wonder at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs shall hear the voice of the Son of God. And they who have done good shall come forth unto resurrection of life; but they who have done evil unto resurrection of judgment.”

On this feast we commemorate the souls of the just whose love is being perfected in purgatory as they are stripped from all longings that are not for God, for only the perfect may look upon the face of God.  Thus, we see the necessity of doing this work now ourselves with the help of the grace of God, and we have our lifetimes in which to do this.  It is easier to do this now than in the world to come.  At that time, the intensity of our love for God will increase, making every moment apart from his vision almost unbearable.  For this reason, we speak of the “flames” of purgatory.  The souls there live in hope, for one day they will most certainly see the Lord and rejoice in his presence forever.

Very many choices of readings are presented in the lectionary for this feast, which was not one of the best ideas the reformers of the lectionary ever had.  The purpose of having a lectionary is for there to be a definitive set of readings for Mass.  The Gospel reading which is the source of this reflection is from the 1962 Missal.  

“Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is here, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God.”  It is easy to see why the crowds remarked about how differently Jesus spoke than their scribes and Pharisees — that he spoke “with authority”.  He speaks definitively here of how the dead shall shortly hear his voice.  Jesus speaks here of the souls in the limbo they inhabited before the Lord’s Death and Resurrection.  After his Death, he preached to the souls and led those who believed in him to eternal life — “those who hear him shall live” — while those who rejected him in their pride they descended into hell.  The souls in purgatory now hear the words of Jesus in their memories and console themselves with his promises.

“For as the Father has life in Himself, even so He has given to the Son also to have life in Himself.”   The Lord speaks of his Father as the Source of all life, human and divine, and by his will his only begotten Son joined himself to a human nature and became the “Son of Man”.  Because the Son has become one of us, he is entitled to judge us.  And he who judges us is the very one who died for us on the Cross.  We can know, then, that he will be most strict on those who reject the salvation he won for us by such awful suffering, and most compassionate with those who strove for it on earth, though they fell just short of the perfection of love needed to receive it immediately after death.  Purgatory exists as a result of this compassion.

“The hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs shall hear the voice of the Son of God.”  How long these souls have waited to hear this voice!  Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, and all the just souls through all the long ages.  Thousands of years passed between the creation of the First Adam and the birth of the Second Adam, as St. Paul designates the Lord Jesus.  “And they who have done good shall come forth unto resurrection of life; but they who have done evil unto resurrection of judgment.”  At the sound of his voice, in answer to his preaching, the righteous rose up into heaven on Easter Sunday.  One day, each soul in purgatory now will hear the Lord calling and shall then rise into the jubilation of heaven, with choirs of angels crying out in welcome.

We are able to assist these souls with our prayers, sacrifices, and our attendance at Mass on this feast.  Let us especially help them with the recitation of the Holy Rosary as we meditate on the mysteries by which we are saved.

Here is the collect prayer from the 1962 Missal for this feast:

“O God, Creator and Redeemer of all the faithful, grant to the souls of Your servants and handmaids the remission of all their sins, that they may obtain by our loving prayers the forgiveness which they have always desired.  Who livest and reignest with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end.  Amen.”