All Souls Day; November 2, 2025

Wis  3:1-9.  Ps 23.  Rom 5:5-11 Jn 6:37-40

Deacon Jim McFadden

       The Psalmist has a beautiful refrain when he writes, “I wait with longing for the Lord, my soul waits for his word. My soul looks for the Lord more than sentinels for daybreak” (Ps 130:5-6).  When you wake up in the morning, do you have this feeling of anticipation?  Do you “wait with longing for the Lord”?

         I think we’re hard-wired to do so because we’re made in God’s image so that we can receive his very Life.  As the Father said to the elder son (of the Parable of the Prodigal Son),  “Everything I have is yours” (Lk 15:31b). So, we should yearn for this encounter with God.  We live in the expectation, in the hope, of hearing these words of Jesus addressed to us: “Come, you who are blessed by my Father” (Mt 25:34).  As good as this world is–and it’s very good because it is God’s creation—it’s not our permanent home.  We are dwelling in the world’s waiting room, sort of like the Motel 6, as we prepare to enter paradise, to take part in that heavenly feast of all peoples that the prophet Isaiah spoke: “On this mountain the Lord of hosts will provide all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines” (Is 25:6).  He says something that speaks to our heart because our greatest expectation is to be with the God forever in which the Lord “will swallow  up death forever” and “wipe away tears from our faces” (v. 8).  This is such a great consolation when the Lord comes to wipe away our tears, but we get into trouble when we hope that someone or something else can do the same—can satisfy our deepest longing.  As we celebrate All Souls’ Day we live in the expectation of receiving such great and beautiful things that we can’t even imagine or conceive, but know to be true because as the Apostle Paul reminds us, we are “heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” (Rom 8:17).  And, as heirs we expect to live forever as we wait the redemption of our bodies (cf. v. 23). 

         Brothers and sisters, as sojourners on this earth, let us feed our expectation for Heaven, let us cultivate this desire for paradise.  I once knew a beloved, and most holy parishioner who was on the final stage of her struggle with cancer.  When asked whether she was afraid of dying, she said, in effect: “Why should I be afraid.  This is what we were made for: to be with God forever.”  She got it: her desires were rightly ordered, which does us much good to ask ourselves: if my desires here and now have anything to do with Heaven?”  Because if they don’t, then we run the risk  of attaching ourselves to passing things, of putting the expectations of the world before expectations of God.  But losing sight of what really matters would be a terrible tragedy because we are made for the things that are above (Heaven) and not below (worldly things).  We are pilgrims on a journey towards the ultimate height of Heaven and if we distract ourselves and glom on to things here below—whether it be the best careers, affluency, social recognition, and controlling power—we’re yearning for things that will all vanish the moment we die and in that instant we will leave this life very disappointed.  How much time do we worry and fret, expending so much energy over things that are passing and ephemeral?  And when do become preoccupied, our desire for our ultimate home fades and we lose sight of the meaning of the Way, who is a person, Jesus. 

         Along this line, every Sunday we recite the Proclamation of our Faith, the Nicene Creed in which we say, “I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.”  How do we do that?  How do we wait?  Am I driven towards what is essential or am I distracted by superficial things.  Am I a person of hope and expectation or do I go about complaining that life is not going my way because I give too much value to things that in the end don’t really matter and that will pass.

         Let us commend ourselves to the Blessed Virgin Mary who will help us in our expectation for tomorrow: to be at home with God forever.  Amen.

Reflection Questions:

1. As you begin your day do you “wait with longing for the Lord”?
2. What are your deepest expectations.  What do you want in life?
3. Where or whom do you go for consolation?  Who or what wipes away your tears?