Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls) 2022

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles

All Souls Cemetery
Long Beach, California
November 2, 2022

My brothers and sisters in Christ,¹

As we know, November is the month of all saints and all souls. The Church gives us this month each year to reflect on our mortality, the meaning of our lives.

So it is beautiful that we celebrate our hope in the Resurrection right here — in this place where we remember our loved ones who have gone before us.

Today we are following that ancient and beautiful custom of offering the Eucharist in remembrance of our beloved dead. We ask God to grant them salvation, to let the perpetual light of eternal life shine upon them.

The Scriptures teach us that our lives are brief, like the grass or a breath of wind. We are here just for a time and then we are gone. But this is a reminder of the joyful hope that we have in Jesus Christ.

Jesus tells us in the Gospel today: “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."

This is the beautiful hope that we celebrate today! That kind of helps us, especially as the sun is coming out, isn’t it? So today is the day of the faithful departed. But we know that God is not of the ones who have died — he is the God of the Living.

And the beautiful truth about our lives is that he has created us to be with him, forever. Yes, we are born in time, but we are made to dwell with God for all eternity in heaven, to live with him in what St. Paul once called “the love that never ends.”² All souls are made to be all saints.

So, today, we remember our dead, our loved ones and friends who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith.

We celebrate today with confidence because, as we heard in the first reading: “The souls of the just are in the hand of God.” We know that is true. We also hear in that beautiful passage from the Book of Wisdom, this promise: “Yet is their hope full of immortality.”

I’ve been thinking that is also the promise of the Eucharist, the promise that our souls will never die.   

Because in every Eucharist, as we are doing today, we renew the memory of Our Lord’s passion and death on the cross for us. We remember, as St. Paul says tells us in the second reading of today’s Mass:

“God proves his love for us
in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”

So my brothers and sisters, our hope is rooted in this tremendous love that Jesus has shown us on the cross.

And we can never take this love for granted, we can never stop reflecting on the mystery of this love.

Jesus died for you and for me! What a beautiful gift! He loved us so much that he gave himself up for each one of us.

And he taught us to remember this gift of his love in thanksgiving, in celebrating the memorial of the Eucharist: “Do this in memory of me.”

Christ’s love is a promise. He said: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.”³ So in every celebration of the Mass, in every Eucharist, he renews this beautiful promise.

That’s why the first Christians called the Eucharist, “the medicine of immortality, the antidote for death, and the food that makes us live forever in Jesus Christ.”⁴

Isn’t it amazing? And we have the beautiful reality of attending Holy Mass at least every Sunday, and when we can, even every day. We see the love of God in the celebration of every single Eucharist. 

So this is the truth of the Eucharist; it is the bread from heaven, and if we eat this bread, and if we remain faithful to him, we live forever in his love. 

Today let’s ask for that grace to renew our hope in the Resurrection, and our awareness that in the Eucharist we have the pledge of the glory to come.

This is, again, what is important for us to have the celebration of Holy Mass in the center of our spiritual life. Sunday Mass, and as often as possible, daily Mass.

So, in Jesus Christ, our lives now have a new destination. Death is not the end of our journey, but the crossroads that leads to a new beginning. 

If we follow Jesus in this life — if we take his hand and live according to his plan of love — he will raise us up.

And that is a beautiful reality. We are walking with Jesus, the Lord is truly our shepherd as we say in the Psalm today. He goes with us, always. Even in our darkest hours, he is at our side. And he will help us always to find the right paths, the paths that lead to heaven.

So, my brothers and sisters, let us stay close to Jesus, and let us stay close to one another. And let us remember that we are always walking in the company of the saints who have gone before us, the great cloud of witnesses.

The saints are our friends and intercessors, and the saints can be great and faithful companions to each one of us.

So, we ask their intercession today in this holy Mass, especially for our deceased relatives, loved ones, and friends. May all of them find mercy and favor with God, and be cleansed and purified, that they might see the Father face-to-face and live in the love that never ends.

We ask the Mary our Blessed Mother to help us. By her intercession, may we grow in holiness so that one day we are a reunited with our loved ones to rejoice forever in the banquet of the heavenly table.

1. Readings: Wis. 3:1–9; Ps. 23:1–6; Rom. 5:5–11; John 6:37–40.