Jesus said to the crowds: “For this is the will of my Father, that
everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I
shall raise him on the last day.”
The Lord loves me just the way I
am. Today, I am reminded that He
loves me even more than that.
We are a fallen creature, a very superficial kind of being of the headlines
type. We are magnetic towards negative
gossip, sensationalism and depressing news.
We are folks of a somewhat depressing nature. What makes the news today is what pumps most
of our hearts. Yes, we are good but we
are in dire need of purification.
Billions of people have lived on the earth. Our history books include a tiny fraction of
them. God includes all of them. He knows all of them. If our Heavenly Father has the time and
ability to count the hair on our head, then He can make count all the lives that were lived.
Billions of people have been baptized.
Only a fraction of them have been declared saints. But for every known saint, we know there are
millions that are unknown. For this reason, every November 1st
is a day of celebration, a day for us to celebrate the lives of all the saints
in heaven.
But like every celebration, once it is over, the very next day we must
get back to work. Today, we must
pray. We must pray for all the faithful
departed who, with great anticipation, eagerly wait to see the face of the Lord. We must do only what we can do. We must care for them and fight for them, and
that is a lot.
Often I think of All Souls Day as a long day in the hospital; that is,
a day when family members must make tough decisions and tough sacrifices for
their incapacitated brothers and sisters; a day in which their prayers,
sacrifices and presence can actually save the lives of their brothers and
sisters. For although their loved ones
may be physically present, they are far from them; though they are breathing,
they are not quite living.
In a similar way, the souls of the faithfully departed are in an incapacitated
state. Though they are no longer
physically among us, they are not far from us.
Though they are no longer breathing, they are still living. And just like family members can make all the
difference in the world for their sick and injured loved ones, so too we make
all the difference in the world for our faithfully departed brothers and
sisters.
Let us pray for those who can no longer pray for themselves. Let us offer sacrifices for those who can no
longer offer an acceptable sacrifice for themselves. Let us love those who can no longer love
others. This is not something
weird. This is natural. We do it with our dead. We do it with our heroes. We do it for our loved ones. The Lord did not simply die for the
living. He died for the dead as well.
This is how Christ showed His love.
This is how we can show our love.
We are a family forever. Heaven
may dissolve marriages on earth but only because heaven unites us as brothers and
sisters in the one love that is of God our Father and our brother Jesus Christ.
May the souls of the faithfully
departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Your final three paragraphs paint such a hope-filled picture! May the Holy Spirit continue to inspire you, Father!!
ReplyDeleteYour final three paragraphs are so hope-filled! May the Holy Spirit continue to inspire you, Father!!
ReplyDeleteThis is a bit unrelated, Father, but do pets go to Heaven?
ReplyDeleteForgive me! I may be wrong
DeleteIsn't Pets (animals) they do not sin ?? Why would they go to heaven LOL
Isn't there a special places for them um.........
Pets do go to heaven, but only through their master. Creatures are on earth to help man and woman be who they were called to be. Everything that exists on earth is to serve man and to help man to be holy. God will not destroy what he created. He will perfect it. Does that make sense?
DeleteYes!it does make sense, Thank you for your clarification:) I do not understand this little sentence "He will perfect it" vs He will prefer it" right ?? lol
DeleteFather Alfonse,
ReplyDeleteI can relate to your homily for All Souls and being faced with having to make a directive for your loved one, your very best friend and someone you've vowed to be with for the rest of your life. The pain is still so tremendous I felt like I lived that dreadful day all over again. I went to adoration and I was faced with the pain again when I looked at Christ on the cross and the pain He must have gone through.
Pets in Heaven?
ReplyDeleteA question that comes up frequently is whether people will see their pets in heaven. Now the Catechism of the Catholic Church does not directly address this question. But it does hold principles which lead us in the direction of an answer.
One principle is that all living things have a soul. Here soul is defined as what makes an organic body live. Now when any living thing dies, its soul is separated from its body. In the case of plants and animals the soul goes out of existence. But in the case of man, the soul remains in existence because it is a spiritual or immaterial thing. Consequently, it differs from the souls of animals in two important respects. First, it is the seat of intelligence or reason. For this reason a man is held responsible for his actions in a way that animals are not. Secondly, the soul is immortal. A thing which has no physical parts cannot fall apart or be poisoned or be crushed or be put out of existence. For this reason the souls of the saved will always be aware of themselves as enjoying the vision of God for all eternity. This enjoyment will be the result of having chosen to act on earth in such a way that one did the will of God rather than one's own will. And the souls of the damned will be aware of themselves as never attaining this vision of God because they have shown by their lives on earth that they did not wish this vision but instead preferred their own will.
In the light of this essential difference between human beings and animals, it would seem that we would not see the souls of our pets in heaven for the simple reason that they do not have immortal souls and are not responsible for their actions. They do not have the intelligence which allows them to choose either God's will or their own will. There is, then, an incomparable distance, say, between the soul of the sorriest human being who ever lived and the most noble brute animal that ever walked the earth.
Now a child might be heartbroken at the thought that he will never see his pet again. He cannot yet understand this explanation about the difference between the human and the animal soul. I suppose that one could tell the child that when he hopefully gets to heaven, he could ask God to see his old pets if he still wished to. There would be no harm in that. For we know that when a person finally sees God, he will not be concerned with seeing old pets or favorite places but rather will be captured in the complete fulfillment of the joy of which old pets and favorite places are but little signs. We adults know that, even if the child does not.
For more information on how the Church sees animals in the lives of human beings, check the Catechism of the Catholic Church 2415-2418. You will learn, for example, that the Church, while it condemns cruelty to animals as an offense against the dignity of man, allow experiments on animals if done in a reasonable way. Again, you will learn of the tremendous difference that the Church sees between the lowliest of human beings and the most noble of the animals. It will allow animals to be used for food or clothing, but will defend the right of an innocent human being to live against Kings and Nations. The Church will demand that animals be respected as part of creation while at the same time insisting that the dignity owed a human being should never be given to an animal.