Faith

The souls of the just are in the hands of God

Friday, October 31, 2025Faith

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Allow me to make a request: As you read this column, take a moment and think of the people or person you love the most.

There are things in this world that are worse than death. Chief among them is the loss of one we hold dear. If we are fortunate, we love someone enough that we would risk or even give our lives to save them. At our best, we human beings are capable of loving another more than ourselves, more than life itself.
Allow me to make a request: As you read this column, take a moment and think of the people or person you love the most. Is your love so great that you would fear losing them more than you would fear for yourself? Is the love strong enough that you would risk everything for them?
Now consider this extraordinary reality: This love you feel, as deep as it may be, is merely a pale shadow against the depth of the love Jesus feels for you. As you have looked in your mind's eye at those you love, try to imagine for a moment the magnitude of divine love. Jesus loves you so completely, so passionately, that He has given his life so that you might have life. Jesus risked all, suffered all, and gave all for you. This life-giving love poured forth in Jesus is the source of our consolation as we observe the Solemnity of All Souls and remember our lost loved ones this Sunday. The readings for All Souls Mass teach us to trust in that love, even in the face of suffering and death.

The Book of Wisdom asserts that God does not abandon the just. The God of Israel is a God of grace and mercy. God gives life to creation and judges in justice. Those who trust in the Lord and live in accord with the commandments can be assured of God's tender care for them, as well as God's power to confer eternal life. Even the sufferings of the just will come to be seen against the merciful justice of the God of life. Though the foolish think them lost, they are in peace.
In the letter to the Romans, Paul speaks of the rare and precious love that allows one person to lay down life for another. Paul goes on to point out the marvelous love of God expressed in Jesus' self-sacrifice for our sake. The grace and mercy described in the Book of Wisdom find new and powerful proof in the death of Jesus. Although we are mere sinful creatures, God reconciles and justifies us in the saving event. Now, even in the face of death itself, we have hope in the unfailing love of God.
In today's Gospel passage, Jesus Himself asserts this truth that He has been sent by the Father to do the Father's will. And that will is not "to lose anything of what he gave" and to raise on the last day all who see and believe in the Son. This passage, taken from the Gospel of John, is brief, but it finds deep resonance against the backdrop of this Gospel that is so focused on the tender care of the Lord for His own. There are so many examples in this Gospel of the personal and interpersonal focus of Jesus. He knows His disciples and they know Him. As the Good Shepherd, they know His voice. He calls them His friends and speaks of the deep love He demonstrates by laying down His life for them. He washes their feet and prays for them even as the hour of His suffering approaches.
The Solemnity of All Souls invites us to remember our loved ones alongside the truth of Divine Love and the Lord's self-offering for our deliverance. In our prayers and in visits to gravesides, we might express sorrow at their passing, but our mourning is tempered by hope. Our relationship with Jesus brings us a share in His life and the hope of eternal life for ourselves and all those whom we love.

- Archbishop Richard G. Henning is the Archbishop of Boston