In the Gospel Reading for today’s feast of All the Faithful Departed (John 6:37-40) Jesus says, “I will not reject anyone who comes to me”. The majority report sees this feast as a reminder to pray for all people who have gone before us. The minority report, as usual, can have many different experiences with this feast.
When we think of all the people who have gone before us, the words can be both comforting and confusing. Not everybody has good memories of persons who have been in their lives. The second reading from Romans says “Hope does not disappoint”. This does not mean things will turn out as I want them to. It does mean on many levels that evil will not win, that our next step on our journey is safe and good.
These words may remind us that, no matter what is going on in our life, the good, the bad, the in between, there is a goodness that we are a part of that is always with us and in us, that helps us deal with life. In the 60 years I have been serving as a priest, both in the civilian and military worlds, I have constantly been amazed, often very surprised, at the stories people have in their lives. This is painfully, perhaps surprisingly, clear in families dealing with death in a hospital room or emergency room. planning funerals. How many are dealing with painful relationships and memories that they use so much of their energy in trying to forget. How many times the only way they could deal with their pain has been imposing it on others or with self destructive behavior. Many among us are walking around with difficult memories along with the guilt they carry for even having these memories.
Today’s Feast reminds us that Abba loves us as we are, is with us in everything in our life, and what is coming in our next step is good. Our past difficulties have made us who we are today, and Abba has been with us in them all. The Alleluia Verse, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father”. Who among us is blessed by Abba? Each one of us is. Jesus presents Abba as the Prodigal Father, who enthusiastically welcomes his wayward son back, while so many of his followers see Abba as a bookkeeper who tracks our every move so he can find reasons to punish us. This is the god we create for ourselves, not the Abba of Jesus. Some of us seem to need a god we can fear.
“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 them on the last day”. Abba’s will is an invitation to a relationship of love and trust with Abba, with Christ, with the Spirit. This goes beyond all religious traditions, which differ among themselves, and many of which claim their way is the only “true” way. Abba’s will for us is that we “see” Jesus, spend time with him, accept him as he wants to be in our every day life, and grow to wholeness in unexpected incidents, choices, and experiences. It is all good, not necessarily easy, but good. Abba’s good is all around us and in us. So often we are not conditioned to be aware of this because we have been taught that Abba is “out there somewhere, and we have to “please” him or else. As we take the time and effort to be open to Abba in our every day life, we come to recognize that Abba is not “out there” but in us and with us, as we are in Abba and with Abba in our here and now. “Hope does not disappoint.”
As we look at Jesus in the Gospels he shows us Abba’s will for us is not restriction, threats, or condemnation, but wholesomeness, growth, welcoming, acceptance, healing. This is for each of us, and at times through each of us. While personal, it is not an individual affair, but Abba’s will for all creation. This is not a quick answer easy affair. “I will not reject anyone who comes to me”. There is no reason for us to be afraid of God, or of dying. From Wisdom: “The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them”. Abba’s word throughout the Scriptures is don’t be afraid. Abba does not force himself on us, and only acts in us with our consent and cooperation. As Teilhard says, “Above all, trust in the slow work of God.”
I am most grateful for the life changing experience I had during my heart attack in the car a few years back in the parking lot of where I live. It was filled with peace, goodness, and safety. As I’ve talked with others who’ve had similar experiences, we all know this peace, goodness, and safety, as we still relearning what it all meant. There really are no words adequately to describe it. But it is good. In a sense it is still going on. Abba is real.
The Feasts of All Saints and All Souls are parts of the same revelation and experience of Abba, the Communion of Saints — all of us. John Paul II: “Heaven is not not an abstraction nor a physical place amid the clouds, but a living and personal relationship with the Holy Trinity that can be experienced partially on earth”. As we are open to this experience, and let ourselves go where our dogmas, liturgies, and tradition point us, we come to experience Abba very personally. Elizabeth Johnson: ”Everything we say about God is limited by our own finite experiences. God is infinite. So we have to keep breaking open our categories and letting our spirits soar into the actual mystery of God”. The intellect is not the way to God. “By our love, the divine may be reached and held; by our thinking, never.”
Jesus is not concerned with getting Abba to love and reconcile with us, but on leading us to know Abba’s endless love for every one of us, so we can grow ourselves and encourage each other. “I will not reject anyone who comes to me”. Jesus doesn’t reject anybody, although his followers reject any who do not live as they want, e.g., how our LBGTQ sisters and brothers are treated, allegedly in Abba’s and Jesus’ name. When we are open to the Spirit, Jesus leads us to know Abba loving every one of us, so we can grow and encourage each other. We are created to live in union with Abba and each other, as Jesus shows us. As we let ourselves be led to each other, often unexpectedly, the kingdom of heaven happens in and around us. Just sayin . . .