HOMILY FOR THE FEAST OF ALL SOULS – 30TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR 1)
THEME OF THE HOMILY: Now we have been reconciled by the death of his Son, surely we may count on being saved by the life of his Son.
COMMEMORATION OF ALL THE FAITHFUL DEPARTED
By: Fr Deotacious Chikontwe SMA
READINGS OF THE DAY
Wisdom 3:1-9
Psalm 22
Romans 5:5-11
Matthew 11:25-30
LITURGICAL COLOUR
VIOLET
INTRODUCTION
Good morning my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate and commemorate the Feast of All Souls Day, in which we remember and pray for all our dear brothers andsisters who have gone from this world before us.
FROM OUR FIRST READING
We have heard in todays first reading that, the souls of the virtuous are in the hands of God, no torment shall ever touch them. In the eyes of the unwise, they did appear to die, their going looked like a disaster, their leaving us, like annihilation; but they are in peace. If they experienced punishment as men see it, their hope was rich with immortality; slight was their affliction, great will their blessings be. God has put them to the test and proved them worthy to be with him; he has tested them like gold in a furnace, and accepted them as a holocaust.
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FROM OUR SECOND READING
In today’s’ second reading, Saint Paul tells us that ‘God’s love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us’. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God’s love, is the first fruit of eternal life. We pray that our loved ones would experience that life-giving love of God to the full.
FROM OUR GOSPEL READING
The invitation of Jesus in todays gospel reading that, ‘Come to me’, and his promise, ‘I will give you rest’, suggests that already in this earthly life we can begin to enter into this rest, this revival of our drooping spirit. We are in need of the Lord’s gift of rest in these days when our spirits can easily droop. We have the Lord’s assurance there in the gospel reading that if we come to him, if we turn to him, we will indeed experience a foretaste of that eternal rest or revival that awaits us beyond death.
CONCLUSION
Brothers and sisters in Christ, on this All Souls Day therefore, let us all remember and pray for our brothers and sisters who have passed on from this world to be with the Lord. Let us all ask the Lord to have mercy on these souls, and allow them to be forgiven and to be cleansed and purified from their residual corruptions by sin, and thus, able to enter into the glory of Heaven the soonest. Then, at the same time, as we have discussed and talked about earlier, we should also remind ourselves that we should strive to do what we can so that our lives will always be truly worthy of God, in obeying His Law and commandments, and in distancing ourselves and keeping ourselves away from sin and its corruption, as best as we can.
May the souls of our departed people continue to rest in peace.
Today as celebrate the mass i pray for the following faithful departed brothers and sisters
1. Mwape Fostina Kunda
2. Kunda Joyce
3. Banda Godfrey
4. Kunda Alex
5. Kunda Martin
6. Veronica kandeke
7. Mercy kunda
8. Moses kunda
9. Emmanuel Mensah
10. Leticia Mensah
11. Agnes Kwofie
12. Mary Asmah
(Grant eternal rest unto them)
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