2 November 2015 - anchor of souls

For if before men, indeed, they be punished,
yet is their hope full of immortality;

Today on the Commemoration of All Souls we celebrate hope. 

Brothers and sisters:
Hope does not disappoint,
because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

We celebrate the hope of living with Jesus forever. We celebrate the hope of being free from the power of death. We were destined for punishment. We were destined for death. But no longer.

For Christ, while we were still helpless,
died at the appointed time for the ungodly.

He died for us. But there is more to our hope than that. He doesn't leave us as we are. He lets the power and merit of his own death transform us. His death transforms even death itself.

For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, 
we shall also be united with him in the resurrection.

Jesus walks in the newness of life over which death has no power. Our hope is that he will make that life present in both the faithful departed and ourselves. There is no other source of life. Death won't stop our brother's and sisters, still imperfectly purified (CCC 1030), from receiving that life to the full as long as they "have grown into union with him". For most of us it is not yet a perfect union. How wonderful, then, that our hope tells us that our own imperfections won't stop God from bringing us home. Somehow even the core of our being and the depths of our hearts will be changed. We will possess the holiness without which no one will see the Lord (cf. Heb. 12:14). We have this promise from Jesus.

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.

This isn't the wishy-washy worldly sort of hope. The world doesn't understand hope. For the world, hope is something which, while nice if it were true, probably isn't. For us, hope is guaranteed by the promise of God. Because of this it is a firm foundation for our lives. It can be an anchor for our souls no matter what is happening in the world around us (cf. Heb. 6:19).

Let's stake everything on this promise. It is the only thing that can make us unafraid in the dark valley.

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.