The
Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed
(All Souls)
The following readings are selected from those which may be used for this Mass.
Reading
I
Is 25:6, 7-9
On this mountain the LORD of hosts
will provide for all peoples.
On this mountain he will destroy
the veil that veils all peoples,
The web that is woven over all nations;
he will destroy death forever.
The Lord God will wipe away
the tears from all faces;
The reproach of his people he will remove
from the whole earth; for the LORD has spoken.
On that day it will be said:
"Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us!
This is the LORD for whom we looked;
let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!"
Responsorial
Psalm
Ps 27:1, 4, 7 and
8b and 9a, 13-14
R (1) The Lord is my light and my salvation.
or:
R (13) I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of
the living.
The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom should I fear?
The LORD is my life's refuge;
of whom should I be afraid?
R The Lord is my light and my salvation.
or:
R I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the
living.
One thing I ask of the LORD;
this I seek:
To dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
That I may gaze on the loveliness of the LORD
and contemplate his temple.
R The Lord is my light and my salvation.
Rom 6:3-9
Brothers and sisters:
Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into his death?
We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death,
so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead
by the glory of the Father,
we too might live in newness of life.
For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his,
we shall also be united with him in the resurrection.
We know that our old self was crucified with him,
so that our sinful body might be done away with,
that we might no longer be in slavery to sin.
For a dead person has been absolved from sin.
If, then, we have died with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him.
We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more;
death no longer has power over him.
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."
In
the First Reading we are given an image of a great banquet which is probably
taken from ancient mythology and has a long history in the folklore of the
world. The banquet suggests a
celebration after the victory is won. In
this particular case the banquet is probably given on
The Christians of Rome had been instructed in the apostolic catechesis and therefore should be familiar with the effects of baptism which Paul speaks about in today’s Second Reading. In the NT, baptizein refers either to Jewish ritual washings, or John the Baptist’s washing, or to Christian baptism. In this reading, Paul discusses the latter.
The Rite of Christian Initiation (RCIA) introduces us into union with Christ suffering and dying. For Paul, the Christian has to identify with Christ’s death because we need to be “dead to sin”. In the baptismal rite, death is symbolically represented:
Christ |
Baptism |
|
Death |
Descending into baptismal waters |
|
Burial |
Being covered with the waters |
|
Resurrection |
Emerging to new life |
Through this process (baptism), a person goes through the experience of dying to sin, being buried, and rising, as did Christ. To enter death is to enter a state where sin no longer has any claim. Thus from a legalistic point of view a dead person is absolved or acquitted – with death all litigation comes to an end. Through baptism, we are co-buried (synthaptein) with Christ and therefore must share in the rising. Paul attributes this to the glory (doxa) of the Father. To be baptized in Christ is to be glorified with Christ. Thus the baptized person is able to live with the life of Christ, leaving behind their old life and becoming a new creation.
The Gospel Reading is an excerpt that interrupts the larger “Bread of Life” discourse. They point to the future division among Jesus’ followers. Only those given by the Father come to Jesus, but none of them are lost. It is understood, then, that all those who are offended by the Bread of Life discourse and leave do not belong to the group given by the Father. However, unlike the Jews who cast out from the synagogues any who believe in Jesus, Jesus will not abandon anyone. The passage also makes clear that Jesus is the source of life.
Today’s celebration brings to mind our mortality. In the natural order of things, there is not a birth without an eventual death, just like there is no day without the eventual night. Yet with knowledge of this truth the thought of death touches upon one of our greatest fears. Our culture has gone as far as calling death by other names. We’ll eloquently speak of someone as having “passed away”, or going off to a “better place”, or that someone is finally “resting”. But no matter by what name we call it, death is inevitable. The problem is that since we have no control over death, we do everything we can to avoid it. Today’s liturgy however, invites us to look at death with eyes of faith.
If we were to tell an unborn child to leave its mother’s womb to enter into a new and wondrous world, it would probably answer with a staunch NO. You see an unborn child knows only the warmth and security of its mother’s womb which it calls home. It is unable to see the wonderful world that God has created for him/her. Yet we who are on the other side of the womb – we who have been born to this world – understand that the child’s true place is outside the womb and in the loving arms of its mother and father. In the same way, we who live in this world in this present life are like the unborn child in its mother’s womb. We are unable to see what lies beyond this life because we know nothing more than what we have experienced in this world. But God, who created us, not for this world but for his kingdom, waits for us in the next life. He waits with open arms to receive his children just like the mother and father receive their newly born child.
Today’s
readings assure us that our true place is with God, and death is but another
change in our lives. Just as we
change from child to adult; just as the seasons pass from summer to fall and
then winter, so too are we transformed from life onto death which brings the
fulfillment of the life given to us in baptism.
We believe along with
New American Bible; Brown, R. K., and Comfort, P. W. (trans.) and Douglas, J. D., (ed.) “The New Greek-English Interlinear New Testament”; United States Conference of Catholic Bishops;Barrett, C. K., “A Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans”; Cranfield, C. E. B., “A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans”; Barrett, C. K., “The Gospel According to John”; Brown, R. E., “The Community of the Beloved Disciple”; Schnackenburg, R., “The Gospel According to St. John”; Segovia, F. F., “Love Relationships in the Johannine Tradition”; “The Collegeville Bible Commentary”; Brown, Raymond E., S.S., “Introduction to the New Testament”; Brown, Fitzmyer, and Murphy (ed.) “The New Jerome Biblical Commentary”.
Deacon Lazaro J. Ulloa