Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls) 2023

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles

Queen of Heavens Seminary
Rowland Heights, California
November 2, 2023

My brothers and sisters in Christ,¹

So 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 his perpetual light of eternal life shine upon them.

And 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.”

My brothers and sisters, this is the beautiful hope that we celebrate today! 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.

We know that God is not of the ones who have died — he is the God of the Living.

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.” And we know that this 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 also what we are talking about is the promise of the Eucharist — the promise that our souls will never die.  

Because in every Eucharist, in every celebration of the Mass, 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 dear brothers and sisters, our hope is rooted in this tremendous love that Jesus has shown us on the cross. And it is a love that is personal, it’s for each one of us personally.

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.”²

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.”³

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. Every single Mass.

Today let us especially 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.

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.

So, my dear brothers and sisters, let’s ask for the grace to 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.

So, we especially ask for their intercession today in this holy Mass, especially for our deceased relatives, loved ones, and friends. May all of us find mercy and favor with God, and be cleansed and purified, that we can feel the presence of God in our lives. Let’s ask that also for our faithful departed, that they may see the Father face-to-face and live in the love that never ends.

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