The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed

What is Daily Mass Readings with Homily and Saint of the Day?

Hear the Mass readings of the day, followed by a homily grounded in the writings of the Church Fathers, Doctors, and master theologians. Every episode concludes with a brief reflection on the heroic virtue of the Saint of the Day and a practical spiritual resolution to carry into your daily life.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today is November the second, the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed. O God, whose mercy is the rest of the weary and the freedom of the captive, look upon the souls who sleep in Christ. Purge what remains of sin, and bring them to the light of your face, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

A reading from the Book of Wisdom.

The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them. They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction and their going forth from us, utter destruction. But they are in peace. For if before men, indeed, they be punished, yet is their hope full of immortality; chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worthy of himself. As gold in the furnace, he proved them, and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself. In the time of their visitation they shall shine, and shall dart about as sparks through stubble; they shall judge nations and rule over peoples, and the Lord shall be their King forever. Those who trust in him shall understand truth, and the faithful shall abide with him in love: because grace and mercy are with his holy ones, and his care is with his elect.

The word of the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm, Psalm 23.

The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. In verdant pastures he gives me repose; beside restful waters he leads me; he refreshes my soul.

The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.

He guides me in right paths for his name's sake. Even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil; for you are at my side with your rod and your staff that give me courage.

The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.

You spread the table before me in the sight of my foes; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.

Only goodness and kindness follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for years to come.

The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.

A reading from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Romans.

Brothers and sisters: Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life. For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection. We know that our old self was crucified with him, so that our sinful body might be done away with, that we might no longer be in slavery to sin. For a dead person has been absolved from sin. If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over him.

The word of the Lord.

Alleluia, alleluia. Come, you who are blessed by my Father; inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Alleluia, alleluia.

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John.

Jesus said to the crowds: "Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day."

The Gospel of the Lord.

The foolish saw the just die and counted it destruction. Wisdom corrects the eye. The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and a hand that holds cannot let fall. Death is real, but it is not the last word. The last word belongs to the hand that formed Adam from the clay and will raise him from the dust.

Wisdom says the just are "chastised a little" and "proved as gold in the furnace." Cornelius a Lapide reads this as the purifying work of God, who tests the elect and refines whatever dross clings to love. The Church has always understood it so. Judas Maccabeus sent an offering to Jerusalem for his fallen soldiers, and Scripture calls it a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from their sins. St. Gregory the Great teaches that a purifying fire awaits the lesser faults, and that each soul is presented to judgment as it departs this life. Death fixes the will. What is not yet clean may still be washed, but only in the fire of charity, never in the fire of despair. Purgatory is therefore the final labor of mercy, and every soul in it is already saved.

Those souls cannot help themselves, and we can help them. St. Augustine teaches that the souls of the pious dead are not separated from the Church, which even now is the kingdom of Christ. The Church is one body, and the bond of charity does not break at the grave. St. Thomas Aquinas holds that the suffrages of the living profit the dead because charity unites them, and the greatest of these suffrages is the Sacrifice of the Altar. St. Augustine asked only one thing of his mother Monica as she lay dying: that wherever she was buried, she remember him at the altar of the Lord. She asked the same of him. The saints did not trust in monuments. They trusted in the Mass.

Saint Paul explains why this is not sentiment but doctrine. We were baptized into Christ's death and buried with him. The Christian has already passed through the tomb in the waters of the font, and the grave is no foreign country to him. He enters it behind the Head. "Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more." What is true of the Head will be true of every member. St. John Chrysostom urges us not to grow weary of aiding the departed with offerings and prayers. If the sacrifice of the fathers could cleanse the sons, how much more the Blood of the Lamb, offered this day on ten thousand altars.

Then comes the Gospel, the most tender promise in the Church's liturgy for the dead. "I will not reject anyone who comes to me." The Father gives, the Son receives, and the Son loses nothing. The Greek sense is that nothing will be allowed to perish, not one soul and not one body. He will raise it on the last day. This is why the Church buries her dead with reverence and faces them toward the east. Our faith in the resurrection is faith in the flesh, and the dust of the faithful is held in trust.

The Shepherd of the Psalm walks the dark valley with the sheep, and the rod and staff comfort the soul even where it cannot yet see his face. Each of us will walk that valley, and each of us will stand in need of prayers we cannot offer for ourselves. So we pray today for the dead, and we ask them to remember us, because they will one day be the ones to meet us at the gate.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.

Choose one soul today, a parent, a friend, or the one no one remembers, and offer for that soul a decade of the Rosary, a visit to a church or cemetery, and, if you can, Holy Communion with the Church's indulgence for the dead. Pray the words slowly: Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.

May Almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever. Amen.
EPISODE_TITLE: Eternal Rest Grant Unto Them, O Lord
IMAGE_PROMPT: A solemn Catholic altar draped