To Be Remembered

The Church at worship begins immediately in November with a task which it does well. The Church engages in remembering itself, the living and the dead. The Church on two consecutive days celebrates the Solemnity of All Saints and the Commemoration of All the Departed Souls.

Remembering is a regular prayerful attitude of believing Christians. When Christians gather to worship, they do two actions: the first is to recall the saving death and resurrection of the Lord and then they give thanks to our Father in Christ for being included in those saving deeds. Actually, the mystery of worship is that the two actions are contemporaneous. We remember by giving thanks and in the thankfulness we recall the loving kindness of God.

Always when the Eucharist is celebrated we sacramentally remember the saving deeds of Christ made available to us in the liturgical words and actions of the community. On All Saints Day and on All Souls Day we gather to celebrate the Eucharist. We recall the victory of Christ over sin and death as we first recall the glorious band of martyrs and saints who have gone before us. The Communion of Saints is held up as reason for giving thanks and as a sign of our own future glory. The saints are us and we are the saints in communion in the Body of Christ.

On All Saints Day we recall the declared saints of the Church and, at the same time, we recall the saints we have encountered in our own lives. We very personally recall our own family members who have died and who we believe are with God forever. We are fortified in our hopeful communion with the saints in Christ.

Remembering the Dead
On the following day the Church gathers again to remember the beloved dead of the community. The ambiance of the remembering on All Souls is different from the day before. The glory and the victory of Christ is more understated in the prayers and readings. This is due in part to the origins of the Commemoration in the Middle Ages. Those times were more fascinated by death and mourning. The victory of resurrection was

struggled with by the believers. Under the day’s theology are thoughts of human frailty and brokenness, sin and unworthiness, and purgation of the effects of sin. The day is more restrained and our hope more tenuous.

The Commemoration of All Souls is more popular with the community. In a culture which does not deal well with death or mourning, believers find the space and time to very intimately remember their own beloved dead. The Communion of Saints embraces not only the glorious saints of God and the saints engaged in the battle on earth, but also all the dead. The love of God is all embracing and faithful to all of us including those who have died. In seeking the mercy of God for others, we remember that we all stand in need of God’s mercy

The gospel is boldly proclaimed in the face of death. The mystery which we remember at each Eucharist and at every moment of our lives is that life comes through the death and rising of the Christ. Our bold hope is that the remembered death and rising of Christ is the pattern and way to life forever with God. All Saints and All Souls Days call us to explore that mystery as we remember that communion which we all have in Christ. The fascination of All Souls thoughts is that we remember the presence of God in the depths of our humanity.

Rites of Christian Burial
Among the most ancient rites of the Church are those of Christian Burial. Under the rites is the human fascination with suffering and death, with love and grief. Along side of these experiences is the comfortability and faith of our discovery of the mystery of eternal life.

The Rites of Christian Burial are patterned on the Great Vigil of Easter, which is baptismal. At the baptismal font, the body of the deceased is welcomed, blessed with the baptismal water, and clothed with the funeral pall which is the robe of eternal glory. The prayer at this moment offers the community a cause for remembering with question and proclamation: “In the waters of baptism [the person] died with Christ, may [the person] now rise with Him in eternal glory.” That’s what we remember and that is who we are as the saints of God.

CDH