WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2011  (Words:374)

 Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls)

 "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 up on the last day."

John 6: 37-40

 The beautiful colors of October are now brittle rakings on the ground. Daylight is now precious; night falls earlier and tarries longer. The grayness of winter has begun to take hold of the landscape - and our spirits.

 Yet some of us, this first week of November, defy the pessimism of late autumn by planting bulbs. In the cold gray earth we bury these balls of packed roots in the certain hope of April resurrection. As we bundle up against the first winds of winter, we dare to trust in the promise of these bulbs: we know that daffodils and tulips and lilies and hyacinths will come, we know, in the spring, conquering the gray winter cold. We gently place them in the ground, cover them with compost, and entrust them to God's hands.

 And we hope the hope that will not disappoint.

 Today we remember the souls of our loved ones who have gone before us to the dwelling place of God. Our November-like grief at their passing finds consolation in Christ's promise of resurrection in God's good springtime; the empty place they once held in our life is healed by the hope of God's grace of re-creation. The same trust and hope that compels us to plant bulbs in the hard November ground enables us to see death not as an ending but as a beginning; our conviction in the dawning of Easter should warm our winter hearts as we await new life in the eternal spring to come.

 May we honor and remember our deceased relatives and friends this All Souls' Day, commending them again to God, the God who unfailingly raises lilies from the late winter earth.  

 Hear, O Lord, our prayers this day for our relatives and friends who have gone before us, marked with the sign of faith. May the company of saints welcome them into your dwelling place; may they take their places at your banquet table in heaven.

 Amen.  Amen.