A Reflection for the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed
Find today’s readings here.
The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them.(Wis 3:1)
I had but one thought after finishing today’s first reading: This had to have come straight out of “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”
With the idea of God’s hands holding the souls of the recently deceased who are awaiting their just punishment, it sounded to me like the Rev. Jonathan Edwards pulled this reading out to reference in his now-famous sermon. (For the record, Rev. Edwards does not reference this passage in his sermon.)
Writing this just after Halloween with that imagery and sermon in mind, I was worried about tackling a reading that, from the surface, fit the popular preconceptions of God from the Old Testament.
And while Rev. Edwards focuses on the wicked who will face punishment from a seemingly uncaring, wrathful God—an easy enough concept to get, albeit from a non-Catholic perspective—what we read for today talks about a more complicated understanding of punishment. This is punishment not for those who turned away from God’s love, but toward it.
But wait, punishment for following God’s love? Do we not follow God for the precise reason of avoiding the pains and repercussions from straying off the path of life?
As emphasized throughout both today’s readings and church teaching, life is an eternally strong force compared to death.
Not necessarily. The Book of Wisdom describes this type of punishment less like top-down, random fury and more as a means of proving his goodness. This section from the Book uses words more closely associated with trials than the act of punishment. What we are being tried for is our devotion to God in the face of the temporary nature of things in this lifetime.
This is most evident—as we remember on All Souls’ Day—the death of those we have loved in this lifetime. The punishment of death is not a wrathful punishment. It is a punishment born of the love from life that we have given those who are no longer with us. God wants us to recognize the importance of life; the trials we face are meant to bring us closer to that life God provides.
Like the opening passage of the reading points out, there is a significant difference between righteous punishment and torment. One betters us to more closely reach God’s eternal love by recognizing our failures; the other has no self-recognition and is an embrace of the temporary.
And as emphasized throughout both today’s readings and church teaching, life is an eternally strong force compared to death.
As we remember those whom we have during our lifetimes, let us remember not only the gift of life that God gives us and our loved ones, but also the loving punishment of death in this life. And while that punishment is real and painful in the moment, the eternity of life promised by God is a reminder of the relief that is soon to come.
