All Saints Day 2024

Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9 and Revelation 21:1-6

Rev. Neli Miranda

Death is an event shared by all human beings, and science indicates that death marks the end of the biological cycle that begins at birth. However, the spirituality and meaning of life developed since the first human communities speak to us of beliefs and practices that transcend this conception. Remnants of bodies have been discovered carefully prepared and placed in graves, accompanied by personal items and utensils believed to be necessary in the afterlife. These rites expressed primordial understandings and beliefs about death, its significance, and what lies beyond mortal life.

            Our Christian celebration of All Saint’s Day, began very early in Christian piety to honor the lives of martyrs, women and men who had remained faithful despite persecution, offering their lives in service to God. All Faithful Departed Day, celebrated on November 2, is an extension of All Saints’ Day that celebrates the lives of our beloved ones, family and friends, who have died in the Christian faith. These celebrations enlighten us to understand our earthly pilgrimage and open us up to the hope of a full life in the presence of God, a reality that transcends time and space. Through these celebrations, we also express our trust in God, in whose hands we entrust our loved ones who have preceded us into the full life. These celebrations are imbued with the radiant light of the dawn when Jesus triumphed over death.

Today, our Lectionary connects two beautiful Bible lessons in the celebration of All Saints’ Day: The Book of Wisdom of Solomon and Revelation. These lessons bring us deep reflections on life, death, hope, and faith even in the midst of adversity and persecution.

 The passage from the Wisdom of Solomon delves into numerous inquiries concerning death and offers answers from a religious and sapient Jewish perspective. This passage addresses some questions that arise when we confront the loss of our loved ones: Why did it have to be this way? What is there after death? Where do our beloved ones go? The passage affirms the existence of an afterlife and states that the souls of the righteous, the believers, are in God’s hands shielded from torment, affirming that they are protected and secure in the Divine presence: “The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God,
and no torment will ever touch them” (3,1). The passage also reveals that some people perceive premature, violent, and many senseless deaths as tragedies. The passage, however, contrasts this view with the reality of peace and protection where the righteous are in God’s presence. “In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died… their departure was thought to be a disaster… their going from us to be their destruction; but they are at peace” (3,2). Additionally, this passage speaks of the spirituality that brings hope to the righteous even in the face of death. It reveals that despite any apparent punishment or misfortune, the righteous maintain hope in a continuous life in God.

On the other hand, the Book of Revelation, written approximately 150 years after the Book of Wisdom of Solomon, emerges from the experience of the 1^st and 2^nd century Christian community who were facing persecution and death. The community, enriched by the experience of Jesus who had destroyed the power of death, envision a full life, a new heaven and a new earth where God dwells among the people, and, “[God] will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away “(Revelation 21:1). Many Christians, men and women and young people, were massacred by the Roman Empire. Yet, the community affirmed that Jesus’ resurrection opened the way towards a new life, where death would hold no power over humans.

Dear sisters and brothers, we all hope that our final moment and that of our loved ones comes at the end of a long life; however, human experience has shown us that many depart “before their time”, even in senseless circumstances. These situations raise human questions and many “why’s emerge. When the pain of death overwhelms us, our Christian spirituality encourages us to trust and surrender to the full life offered by Jesus. He proclaims that full life begins here and now and will continue in the glorious future that transcends time and space. The death of our loved ones, whether premature or “in time”, saddens us and fills us with grief; however, our Christian hope fills us with peace and reminds us where we will find our loved ones.  Where are our dearly beloved ones who have gone ahead of us? In God’s hands where no suffering or pain can reach them anymore!

Meanwhile, as we continue our earthly journey, our faith leads us to join the expectant community of Revelation and envision together the new earth and the new heaven, with God dwelling among us, where sorrow, tears, and suffering will be no more. Thus, nothing and no one can move our faith, for we abide in Jesus who proclaims, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.” 

Amen.