November 2, 2026,
Saint William Catholic Church in Naples, FL
John 6: 25-40
Today we are about something that is uniquely Catholic. To the best of my knowledge, we are the only religious tradition that prays for the dead. It is a custom that springs from what we profess in the Creed when we say that we believe in the communion of saints and look forward to the resurrection of the dead. The earliest Christians kept their relationship with the dead by frequent, respectful visits to their graves and keeping traditions they shared. All because we believe in communion, because we believe that the ties that bind us do not unravel with death. It is not the bodies that bind us together. If it was, how in the world could most of you who are married remain together as you age and that youthful beauty is gone?
I think that calling this “All Souls Day” is unfortunate because we are not here to remember souls. We are here to remember people, people who have made a difference, people who have given us our body, parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, people who have given us our faith, taught us to read, to forgive, to be kind, how to play and shown us how to love and accept love.
Too often this day takes on the trappings of gloom and grief, and too often we live in the pat as though there is no future. My friends, Jesus draws and leads us into the future. Those whose names shall be called in just a few moments are still full of life – the fulness of life. No harm can touch them now. This is a day of hope. It is a day of anticipation and joy. Sadness might come from the fact that we are not yet there rather than the fact that we are not still together on this earth with those who have gone before us. We can rejoice today with grateful hearts that we have received the promise of life as we feast on the Body and Blood of the one who has come to give us life that lasts forever. For we believe that one day whatever death has broken will be restored, as those with whom we have shared this life wait for us in glory.
This Gospel just proclaimed unlocks a very important and comforting message as a people remembering loved ones who have gone before us. The detail is the verb tenses, and I’ll be you missed it. In the first part, these people keep speaking in the past tense, about what Moses did. Then in the second half, Jesus speaks about the future. They say: “Our Fathers ate…” Jesus says: “Whoever comes will…. Whoever believes will….” Then in the present tense Jesus says, “It was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven, but my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.” Past or future: which shall it be for us?
Sometimes we are a lot like those people. We always want more, and too often we want signs when the truth is, we already have the best and final sign, Jesus Christ risen from the dead. That resurrection happened because he did the Father’s will. It is a sign to us that we who do the Will of God shall be raised up as well, and that is our hope today.
Remembering is at the core of our faith. “Do this to remember me” comes the command of Jesus. It is when we forget that we fall into sin. It is when we forget that we break the bond of our communion It is when we forget that we lose our way It is when we forget that we repeat our mistakes. It is when we forget that we stumble. It is when we forget that we fail to see the life of God in those beside us.
Those we remember today do not cease to exist because we cannot see them or know their presence through our senses The life they have now is present not future past nor distant. It is not above the sky it is not beyond the grave. It is now and here the Kingdom of God among us.
Grief is only possible for those who love, and it bear witness to that love gratefully. The memories we have for those who have gone before us reveal the power of love that defeats the power of death. The Gospel we proclaim today stirs hope in us not just for those we have buried, lovingly remembered, and grieved, but hope for ourselves who will follow those who have gone before us. For them and for ourselves we proclaim today a risen Christ who was proclaimed by those first apostles, He has risen, and so shall we.