On All Souls’ Day, it is good to thank God that we have living souls—that God has created us precisely as living beings fit to be his fellow workers and friends, and suitable companions for one another.
It is by no means self-evident that we exist at all, still less that we are the kind of beings we are. But God is good and has created us out of pure and perfect love, for it is the nature of love to desire to create what is good and to share its generosity.
All Souls’ Day therefore invites us to reflect with gratitude that life is not merely a physical phenomenon—it is an expression of God’s love. Our souls reflect God, and therein lies our true worth. When we love one another, we also love God, whose countenance is reflected in all the beings he has created.
All Souls’ Day also reminds us that just as God is eternal, so are the human souls he has created. Temporal death is not the end, for “the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God”, as the Wisdom of Solomon says (Wisdom 3:1).
Let us remain close to God, that even in this world he may cleanse us from everything that stains our souls, so that when we enter eternity we may find sincere and imperishable joy in seeing him. See you at church!
