A Reflection for the Commemoration of All of the Faithful Departed
Find today’s readings here.
The souls of the just are within the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them.(Wis 3:1)
I had but one thought after ending today’s first reading: This needed to have come straight out of “Sinners within the Hands of an Offended God.”
With the thought of God’s hands holding the souls of the recently deceased who’re awaiting their just punishment, it sounded to me just like the Rev. Jonathan Edwards pulled this reading out to reference in his now-famous sermon. (For the record, Rev. Edwards doesn’t reference this passage in his sermon.)
Writing this just after Halloween with that imagery and sermon in mind, I used to be apprehensive about tackling a reading that, from the surface, fit the favored preconceptions of God from the Old Testament.
And while Rev. Edwards focuses on the wicked who will face punishment from a seemingly uncaring, wrathful God—a simple enough concept to get, albeit from a non-Catholic perspective—what we read for today talks a couple of more complicated understanding of punishment. That is punishment not for many who turned away from God’s love, but toward it.
But wait, punishment for following God’s love? Can we not follow God for the precise reason of avoiding the pains and repercussions from straying off the trail of life?
As emphasized throughout each today’s readings and church teaching, life is an eternally strong force in comparison with death.
Not necessarily. The Book of Wisdom describes the sort of punishment less like top-down, random fury and more as a method of proving his goodness. This section from the Book uses words more closely related to trials than the act of punishment. What we’re being tried for is our devotion to God within the face of the temporary nature of things on this lifetime.
That is most evident—as we remember on All Souls’ Day—the death of those we’ve loved on this lifetime. The punishment of death just isn’t a wrathful punishment. It’s a punishment born of the love from life that we’ve given those that aren’t any longer with us. God wants us to acknowledge the importance of life; the trials we face are supposed to bring us closer to that life God provides.
Just like the opening passage of the reading points out, there may be a big difference between righteous punishment and torment. One betters us to more closely reach God’s everlasting love by recognizing our failures; the opposite has no self-recognition and is an embrace of the temporary.
And as emphasized throughout each today’s readings and church teaching, life is an eternally strong force in comparison with death.
As we remember those whom we’ve during our lifetimes, allow us to remember not only the gift of life that God gives us and our family members, but additionally the loving punishment of death on this life. And while that punishment is real and painful within the moment, the eternity of life promised by God is a reminder of the relief that’s soon to come back.
