Earth Our Tent! Heaven Our Homeland!! (Reflection for the Commemoration of All Souls’ Day)

Earth Our Tent! Heaven Our Homeland!!

(Reflection for the Commemoration of All Souls’ Day)

          The feast of today reminds us of the communion with the three churches (Triumphant, militant and suffering); while the Triumphant prays for us, we pray for the suffering church. We are in a communion of prayers. The remembrance of the dead will have no meaning without the Resurrection. What we are celebrating today takes its reason and foundation from the resurrection event, the Resurrection of Christ (first fruit from the dead). For as St. Paul vehemently echoed: “if Christ has not risen, then our preaching is without substance and so is or faith” (1Cor. 15:14), and we may add also that our life would have been meaningless, without that event.

          The commemoration of today brings a pertinent truth about human life and existence to our consideration, and that is the fact that we are pilgrims on earth. It is therefore, important we understand that our life is a journey, a journey from birth to death. Biblically, the greatest journey in the Old Testament was the journey from Egypt to the Promised land. But for us our promised land is not on this earth: ours is in Heaven. The journey to the promised land in the Old Testament is a symbol of the journey each of us make to God as we go through this life. So between our life and death we are pilgrims on the road to God. For this St. Paul opined that “when the tent that houses us on earth is folded up, there is a house for us from God, not made by human hands but everlasting, in the heavens” (2Cor.5:1), we are living in tent, because we are travelling and intend to move from place to place and the tent is a temporary dwelling, our final destination, abode is in God. St. Augustine comprehended the reality of human existence profoundly when he affirmed: “you have made us for yourself o Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you”.

          Dear brothers and sisters, what we have to celebrate today is not necessarily only about the dead, but also about death itself. Their remembrance should not make relive the pain, sorrow and grief of the absence of our loved ones, rather it should spur us on to believe firmly in the Resurrection of the dead. As we pray for the dead, we equally have to think about the reality of death itself. For the book of wisdom tells us that the souls of the just are in the hands of God (Wis 3). Death is a reality that concerns us all, we cannot but talk about it. We should not be afraid of death, for Christ has won it forever. We may put our voices together to that of St. Paul in asking: “Death where is your victory? Death where is your sting? Thank God then for giving us the victory through Jesus Christ” (1Cor 15:55,57). But we need to be found worthy when the Master comes knocking!

          Above all else, however, with death man is born into eternity. Little wonder, the Church recognizes the day of  death of saints as a day of their Birth into heaven  (dies natalies). The question we have to ask ourselves today is, where will I spend my eternity or everlasting life?. If I should die now, where will I be? Our reflection on death reminds us that we should be ready and well prepared for our date of Birth into Eternity or Everlasting life. For as the psalmist says “man is like a grass that dies, sprouts in the morning, by evening it is dry and wittered” (Ps.90:6), “teach us to count our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart” (Ps 90:12). Our reality is their past, and their present is our future. Where they are, we too will be! It is indeed true that “a caterpillar could never tell how beautiful it would become as a butterfly with beautiful wings”.

May the Souls of all the Faithful Departed through the Mercy of God Rest in Peace! Amen!!!

(Fada Vitus M. C. Unegbu)