2 November 2018
The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed
“Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me…”
Then what have we to fear? Go to Him! Come to Jesus; He is calling you, and He will not reject you. Why is this? The Father gave you to Him; you are a gift from God the Father to God the Son. At the Last Supper Jesus says, “Father, they are your gift to me” (John 17:24), and He says also, a few verses after today’s Gospel ends, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him…” (John 6:44). The Father has drawn you to His Son, brought you into the very life of the Son of God through Baptism: you are a member of the Body of Christ. How could He reject you? For in doing so, He not only rejects the gift of the Father, but He rejects Himself: “If we are unfaithful he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself,” (2 Timothy 2:13). Indeed! He who said He came not to do His own will, but the will of the One who sent Him, says He therefore must not lose anything of what He has been given. Thus He leaves the ninety-nine behind to chase after you (Matthew 18:10-14), and all of Heaven rejoices—all of Heaven!—over the repentance of one sinner: consider this the next time you go to confession.
What, therefore, keeps you from coming to Jesus in a profound and more total way than ever before? Yesterday we celebrated all the saints of the Church; today we remember all the faithful departed, those who died in friendship with Christ who, even in their final moments, turned and came to Him. Be it the “prodigal son” being welcomed home at last, or the one who has “…competed well…finished the race…kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7) over the course of a long life. One might consider this day as the day we remember those unknown saints, for all who are in Heaven are saints, whether the Church has been blessed to acknowledge them or not. There may be saints whose names are unknown who are greater than any saint, save Mary; only God knows. And let us not dare forget those faithful departed who yet await their purification in Purgatory, who see the very horizon of Heaven as the light of their final bliss dawns more and more as their souls are stained white in the Blood of the Lamb. Saints known and unknown, souls being made pure in the mercy of God: you, too, are called to join their ranks: God-willing one day, brothers and sisters, today will be your feast day.
For God beckons all to come to Him; He draws all to His Son, to Whom you already belong by divine gift. But only you can complete that gift by offering yourself, whole-heartedly, to the same Jesus who offered His entire self upon the Cross, and makes the same offering, over and over again, to you, personally, at every Eucharist. Can you fathom the love He has for you? For you! And He desires, very much, not only to possess you for eternity, but that you would possess Him eternally as well: this is Heaven.