Today we have the extremely unusual opportunity to celebrate All Souls Day on a Sunday.

All Souls Day is ordinarily not a Holy Day of Obligation, so for some people gathered today — this may very well be the FIRST All Souls Day mass you’ve ever attended.

So in case you are not sure what this is all about, All Souls Day is the day when we pray for ALL the souls that are still in Purgatory. 

Of course we believe as Catholics that any soul being purified in purgatory is actually already ON THE WAY to Heaven… 

They died in a state of grace, yes, but they died with various attachments to sin and other stains of this world still on their souls… So while they are guaranteed to be saved EVENTUALLY, there remains a process of purification and preparation to be undergone.

Countless saints and doctors of the Church assure us that this purification is a very very painful process. We refer to those souls in Purgatory as the “Church Suffering” for a reason!!! — The fiery trial of purgatory is NOT at all enjoyable… even with that glorious guarantee of ultimately entering into Heaven one day. St Francis de Sales says that if they were given a choice between returning to this world or remaining in that fire, they would prefer to stay there! 

… but still, souls in purgatory DEFINITELY want to get it all over with!

That’s where All Souls Day comes in.

Because this is the day when we, in our charity as the Church Militant, get to help speed up that purification process… We offer the Holy Eucharist with the express intention to alleviate their experience, and to usher them more quickly through the gates of Heaven that await them.

Think about that! — At this mass today, and at every mass celebrated throughout the world — untold numbers of souls will be helped into Heaven through YOUR prayers today!!!!

That is awesome.

It happens at every Mass, of course, which is why it’s so important for us to have a Catholic funeral for our relatives, and then continue to have various masses offered for them… but All Souls Day is a special day when we particularly remember ALL the dead.

Most especially… all of the forgotten souls.

It’s not a very comfortable thought at all, but the reality is we will each die one day. And while some men and women of history are sort of remembered… maybe for something they wrote, or accomplished, or invented…they might have statues of themselves somewhere, or if you’re REALLY lucky… a national holiday or something named after you.

But the VAST MAJORITY of us…… are simply….. forgotten.

Our loved ones will remember us for a while, sure. Especially our closest family and friends… but then, eventually, they will die too. Until everyone who ever knew us, loved us, or ever even heard about us also has gone to their graves.

Think of your great great great great grandfather.

Do you even know his name?

I know I don’t.

…That will be you and me one day.

It’s not a morbid thought.

It’s just reality.

As these black vestments invite us to… we must each wrestle with our own mortality… We need to face the reality of the brevity of this life and our own guaranteed end. “Memento Mori” (Remember Death) — as the old Latin phrase goes…

BUT…and here’s the good news… God never forgets us.

And that is why He has given His Church this beautiful memorial of All Souls — to make sure that the Body of Christ intercedes for and lifts up the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for ALL those people for whom nobody prays for anymore, nobody remembers anymore… nobody except the Lord Himself!

There’s that beautiful line in Eucharistic Prayer I, which I will pray today that says:

“Remember also, Lord, your servants who have gone before us with the sign of faith, and rest in the sleep of peace” — and, if you recall, we then take a brief pause of silence… a pause to remember all our family members, all our friends, our benefactors, our teachers, our priests ANYONE we know who has died.

But it’s also a pause to remember the forgotten souls.

The ones still waiting in purgatory, with nobody left to pray for them…

That is so beautiful and so comforting, isn’t it?

God remembers every single human life. 

He also remembers every single death. 

He remembers the way each person died, whether they died yesterday or 3,000 years ago. He remembers if they died with fear, or with peace… with faith, or with doubts. He remembers what precise state of soul they were in at the moment it was separated from the body. He remembers whether or not they would have wanted a priest by their side for Last Rites. He remembers their most hidden thoughts, He remembers their most dreaded secret sins, their most silent, desperate prayers of repentance.

We can be sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt that nobody — absolutely NOBODY — ever dies alone or unseen.

God is always with them. 

Closer to them than they are to themselves.

God remembers every death. He remembers every life.

And, if I may pivot a little bit, to address another, but related topic — This is why the Catholic Church is so absolutely clear on its teachings with regard to the protection of the sanctity of every human life! This is why the Church has to stand up against the Culture of Death in every single instance.

Last week I tackled the thorny and complicated topic of immigration.

Well, this Sunday, as we remember ALL the souls of the dead — I want to address briefly another critical topic: 

Abortion.

Abortion is never justifiable. It is never the answer. It is never humane. It is never health care.

It is always and everywhere an unimaginable tragedy.

And yet — God does remember EVEN NOW every single human life that has ever been ended by abortion. 

He remembers absolutely every baby whose life was cut short by somebody else’s tragic decision. He knows them each by name. He remembers each scared mother… every terrified father who felt like this was the only option they had. God remembers the pressures they experienced. The lies they were told. The false compassion shown to them that led up to their decision to terminate the life of their child.

He remembers everything.

Every hair is counted. known. loved.

Every cell is numbered.

This is how loved we are… This is how precious every life actually is to God.  …He remembers EVEN NOW…

As your pastor, I do want to make sure that everyone is aware of an upcoming proposed amendment to the Virginia State Constitution. It will be voted on sometime next year, as I understand it, so the legislators we elect this Tuesday, November 4th, will decide whether the proposed amendment is advanced or stopped.

Here is a statement taken from the Virginia Catholic Conference on what is actually at stake with this amendment:

“The proposed amendment would enshrine virtually unlimited abortion at ANY stage of pregnancy as a ‘fundamental right’ in Virginia’s constitution. It would not include any age restrictions, does not include any safety standards, jeopardizes Virginia’s parental consent law, jeopardizes Virginia’s conscience protections for healthcare providers (Catholic hospitals), and expands Virginia’s already permissive abortion laws.”

Suffice to say, this is a fundamentally important issue for Catholics. It should be a fundamentally important issue for all human beings with good will, regardless of their religion or belief systems.

Life and death are in the hands of God… and nobody else. 

So in this Eucharist, we entrust this whole thing to God. We pray for an end to the Culture of Death. And we pray for the salvation of All Souls.