All Souls Day (31 Sun)

November 2, 2025

John 6:37-40

One of the most comforting truths is expressed in today’s gospel: “And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he sent me, but that I should raise it up on the last day.” The mission the Father sent his Son on is so personal to each of us, just as it is cosmic. We can say that it truly goes beyond all we could hope for; we are not simply promised eternal life, but that our lives continue beyond our finite existence, but more, that Jesus’ loving and caring Father wants us to spent that ever-living life with Him. The Father, that is, Our Father given to us by his Son, wants to enfold us in his loving, caring arms, just as Lazarus of a few Sundays ago, was enfolded in the arms of Abraham.

So what does this expect from us? In this reading, Our Father asks for trust. What kind of trust? The trust that we surrender our grief and questions to God. It verifies that our longings and unfinished stories are known to Christ and that in him, every wound can become a doorway and every goodbye can become a new beginning. In short, knowing, loving and serving God in this world so as to be with him in the next world. And so joined with God, we are joined with the communion of saints, whether they are already unified with God in heaven or are still working their way to him in purgatory or on earth. At any point in this journey, we can take up the way of life Jesus offers us as a way to his Father. At any point. There is great hope for our loved ones who have gone before us, there is hope for ourselves who are in communion with them.

Our hope is in Jesus as St. Paul points out in second reading from his Letter to the Romans. He reminds us that hope does not disappoint, because in that hope, the Spirit has filled us with God’s love. It may even be that we are not always aware of how much God has filled us with his love. As our relationship grows through our prayer, we become more and more aware of just how much the Father, Son, and Spirit have lived in us and helped us

bridge what we now see as a gap between our lives as we know them, to that same life changed in such a way, that it continues into union with God and with that communion we share with all the saints.

This makes that comforting line in the Book of Wisdom make more sense: "the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them.” It does seem odd that in just a few lines, wisdom speaks of,”as gold in a furnace, he proves them.” However, this is not about punishment, but about refinement. Punishment smothers us, refinement draws us forth. It is about making us more receptive to allowing us to perceive his presence within us and within our brothers and sisters. The torment would be in never being joined to God; refinement would enable this to happen.

It is clear to us now that the Father doesn’t want anything, anyone, given to his Son, Jesus, to be lost. This is our hope, our reality. That reality includes that "the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them.” There is no torment for us, only refinement to be able to perceive that our God loves us and that we are his. This saying of St. Catherine of Siena is ours: Lord, take me from myself and give me to Yourself.

Fr. John Tran