THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS AND OUR JOURNEY OF HOPE

I love that each year the Church celebrates, in two consecutive days, All Saints Day and All Souls Day.

All Saints Day invites us to rejoice with those who have made it to the house of Our Father, adopted into God’s family at baptism and made perfect through their cooperation in the purifying action of His grace. They exult forever in His presence, a reality so wondrous, it is beyond our comprehension. (1 Cor 2:9)

Then, after rejoicing in friendship with the saints in heaven on November 1, we go to sleep and wake up to All Souls Day, when we acknowledge in the light of the reality of purgatory, how many souls need intercession and assistance to reach that final glory and rest in heaven.

This is wonderfully and rightly ordered! We first look to God’s heavenly promises on All Saint’s Day, and only then do we look to the journey needed to get there, on All Soul’s Day. Just so in our lives with Christ, we do not set out with fearful and servile obedience to God’s commands, we set out like little children, opening our hearts to His unimaginable love for us and awakening faith and hope towards His lofty call. The Church reminds us through these two sacred days that we have been adopted into God’s family, and that our earthly journey is about this glorious reality, that we are truly His beloved sons and daughters! We see this illustrated in Sunday’s second reading from Romans 8:14-23, speaking of our adoption in Christ, accomplished in us so truly that we can affectionately call God Himself “Abba, Father!” How extraordinary!

This framing of adoption by God assists us on All Soul’s Day, when through our prayers for the faithful departed, we acknowledge the reality of purgatory. It is a mysterious reality that the Church has held from the very beginning, passed down through the ages from Jesus to His Church, even to today. There is much to say and perhaps a future writing can address it further, but this week, I invite us to approach the mystery of purgatory from this particular perspective:

To be in God’s house, in perfect union with Him, we must be perfectly purified. We must be, in a final way, emptied of ourselves in order to be, in an equally final way, full of God’s very self forever. This means that if you and I take our final breath while still clinging to unforgiveness, fear, or any other obstacle to the fullness of God’s love, then purgatory serves as a great mercy, purifying and releasing us of all that is not of Him so we may be welcomed into our heavenly inheritance among the saints.

Certainly, God’s first desire is that our generous response to Him would be the path that fully purifies us in this present life, such that after death, no further purgation is necessary. Additionally, in our freedom, we may choose to reject Him and His Church entirely, suffering the consequences of eternal separation from Him in eternity.

Yet we need not fear!

It is in sure and certain hope that as we continue to journey courageously with Christ, He has promised to deliver us from every hindrance and sin that binds, and restore us as His adopted sons and daughters, preparing us for final glory with all the saints through all eternity.

~Fr. John Rumpza