All Souls Day
Note: Paul is a sacramentalist. He is pointing out here that the ritual in the New Covenant is 5 more powerful than in the old. Baptism in the Old Covenant was a ritual washing which prefigured the inner cleansing which was to come with the new.
1st Reading - Lamentations 3:17-26
The Talmud and rabbinical writings refer to this book as “dirges” or “lamentations” and the Vulgate and modern translations have kept this designation. Lamentations dwells entirely on disasters occurring from 597 B.C. on, and as such, bewails their occurrence. The time and author are uncertain although the early Hebrews saw that in 2 Chronicles 35:25 a reference is made to the preservation of dirges composed by Jeremiah on the death of King Josiah in 609 and thus concluded that Jeremiah was their author (hence their placement in the Bible immediately following Jeremiah). Our reading today refers to the destruction of the temple and the suffering which has resulted. 17 My soul is deprived of peace, I have forgotten what happiness is; 18 I tell myself my future is lost, all that I hoped for from the LORD. 19 The thought of my homeless poverty is wormwood 9 The plant Artemisia. Because of its bitter taste it is used as a metaphor for divine punishment. Oil of wormwood is poisonous. and gall; Also something bitter 20 Remembering it over and over leaves my soul downcast within me. 21 But I will call this to mind, as my reason to have hope: His despair is not great enough to obscure certain theological bases for hope. The author is using himself as a model for the city; he has suffered, but he has reason to hope – reasons that the suffering city has every right to share 22 The favors of the LORD are not exhausted, his mercies are not spent; His suffering has been so great that he could only dwell on one attribute of God, His wrath. For the moment, it seemed his only attribute, his final nature, and in that context the author almost despaired. So might the city. But the author knows that God’s wrath is not final, and it might be seen within the greater and truly final context of God’s graciousness. 23 They are renewed each morning, so great is his faithfulness. 24 My portion is the LORD, says my soul; therefore will I hope in him. 25 Good is the LORD to one who waits for him, to the soul that seeks him; 26 It is good to hope in silence for the saving help of the LORD. As an Israelite, he has confidence that Yahweh’s eternal covenant with Israel applies to him individually and since Yahweh is the God of all Israelites this confidence is something every responsible Israelite may experience.
2nd Reading - 1 John 3:1-2
The tradition of the ancient Church is virtually unanimous in ascribing 1 John to the authorship of John the Apostle, the son of Zebedee. 1 John is believed to have been written before the Gospel, but when is unclear. 1 John is an epistle to a defined group, prompted by the spread of erroneous teachings. What we hear today is from his exhortations to live as children of God. 3:1 See what love the Father has bestowed on us In the truest and most absolute sense, God’s gift of love has been the gift of His only Son as Savior of the world. 10 that we may be called the children of God. It is this gift that has made it possible “that we be called the children of God”. Yet so we are. Sonship with God can be considered both an eschatological fulfillment (Romans 5:2; 8:23) and also, as shown here, a present reality. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. This relation to God is shown in the attitude of the world which accords the same treatment to the disciples that it accorded to the Master 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. The Christian is a child of God now, yet there is another fulfillment toward which he looks, in which his configuration to God will be completed. When it is completed we will be like God (not gods ourselves, but like Him). We will join our eldest brother Jesus in heaven; giving glory to God the Father.
Gospel - John 12:23-28
According to Saint Iranaeus (A.D. 180) tells us that Saint John wrote his Gospel in Ephesus. Irenaeus appears to have based his testimony upon the recollection of the teaching of Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna, whom he (Irenaeus) had heard as a young man; and Polycarp, according to Irenaeus, had known the apostle John himself. Our reading for today takes place in Jerusalem, at the beginning of Passion Week; Jesus having made His triumphal entry into the city. 23 Jesus answered them, Jesus is addressing Philip and Andrew who have just brought a request for an audience with some Greeks (who may have come to Jerusalem for the Passover but are considered to be Gentiles). It is not yet time for the Gentile mission, though its principle is even now being revealed. “The hour has come Now that the week of His passion has begun (v1), Jesus can say at last that his “hour” has come. 11 for the Son of Man to be glorified. Glory was an Old Testament term for the presence of God visibly manifested; especially in connection with the Tent of Meeting and the Temple. 24 Amen, amen, The doubled amen is a signal of a solemn pronouncement; one with life and death considerations. I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Jesus then begins to elucidate the mystery of His atoning death. He relates his own sacrifice to the agricultural motif; something they can understand. It seems paradoxical, but only after grain has been buried does it produce more fruit – in far greater abundance than itself. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, The true meaning of life often eludes him who thinks he is living it to the hilt. Selfishness, man’s false love for himself that will not permit him to sacrifice himself, ends in destroying him. and whoever hates his life in this world “Hates” is a semantism for “loves less”. In John, “the world” means the world of men and their affairs, which concretely is a world subject to sin and darkness. will preserve it for eternal life. Only by treating his life as worthless from a this-worldly view does man gain the only life that really counts. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me. The principle of sacrifice – the explanation of Christ’s life – also holds for anyone who will count himself a true follower of Christ. If you are a servant, you minister to another. Imitation of Christ is inescapably the standard of Christian perfection. 27 “I am troubled now. In the face of an imminent and cruel death, Jesus can and does feel anguish. 12 Yet what should I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? A rhetorical question with the implied answer of “no”. But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour. The value of Christ’s sacrifice consists in the readiness with which he submitted to it. 28 Father, glorify your name.” This is Jesus’ final answer from his crisis of spirit, and it is a wholehearted acceptance of the Father’s will. The glorification of the Son is also that of the Father. Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it and will glorify it again.” The reference is to no single event, but to the entire lifework and teaching of Jesus, all of which have been “signs” of the ultimate glorification that is to come.
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St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, Picayune, MS http://www.scborromeo.org