Feast of All Saints, 1 November 2024: Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9; or Isaiah 25:6-9; Psalm 24; Revelation 21:1-6a; John 11:32-44
Today we celebrate the Feast of All Saints, and tomorrow is All Souls: over these two days we remember those who have gone before us. Here in California, the Mexican custom of the Día de los Muertos has been widely adopted, with ofrenda, the altars with offerings and remembrances, not just at home but in schools and workplaces. The calaveras, the highly decorated skulls of the ofrenda, have been incorporated into American Halloween culture. I am always moved when I see ofrenda: they tell stories both about those who have died and those who remember them.
The point is, of course, that we remember the dead. In theory, All Saints celebrates those who are in some way saints, while All Souls celebrates all the souls who have gone before us. But whether saints or sinners, (or a mixture of both, like most of us) the dead may remain alive to us for years. We remember them, or the stories about them: some of those I remember died before I could really know them.
And so our readings today offer comfort not in memory, but in the promise of the future, what happens to the dead after they have died. The Wisdom of Solomon tells us that,
The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment will ever touch them. In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died, and their departure was thought to be a disaster, and their going from us to be their destruction; but they are at peace.
From Isaiah:
On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.
And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever.
From Revelation:
“See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God;
they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.“
And then our Gospel, the story of the raising of Lazarus. For me, the thing in this story that sticks out is that Jesus grieves with Lazarus’ family. He is there. He is with us in our sorrow. We have the promise that “he will wipe every tear from their eye”, and we believe it because we saw him do it.
As Christians we believe that death is not the end. But that does not mean that we do not feel the loss of those who have died. So we remember those we have known, who have touched our lives. What makes their spirits live on? What do we carry from them?
It is good to remember, to mourn those we have lost. We say their names, and join them to other more public saints: Robert, Thorry, Kent, Lisa, Lee, Dolores, Lorna, Bradd, Julia, David, Kitty, Dora, Romina, John, Joan, Joann, Jean, Evelyn, Connie, Jan, Joseph, Joseph, Alice, Tom, Betty, Bill, Don, Sigmund, Clara, Clive, Don, Ann, Natalie, Diane, Hanne, Margo, Annie, Laura, Ray, and so many more. As we remember, though, we can also sing,
But lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day; The saints triumphant rise in bright array; The King of Glory passes on his way. Alleluia, alleluia!*
* From “For All the Saints”, The Hymnal 1982, #287