Thoughts for All Souls

As I think back to the death of my father, the first year after losing a loved one can be very hard. We want to chat about things with them, we consider the plans we had made. Birthdays and anniversaries seem hollow and we are confused by their absence from our lives. All this is perfectly natural when we are parted from those whom we love.

Yet slowly, with the help of friends and family we begin to move on. We find that we can talk of them without a catch in our throat. Slowly, we find new ways of being a family and make new friends. Eventually maybe, we can toast the departed on those special days as we remember the celebrations we shared. Slowly, hurt is replaced by hope.

As we sift our memories and remember our loved ones, it is important to remember them at their best; their happiest, healthiest and most generous. In our reading from 1 Peter we are told that such memories are but a dim reflection of how we will be in heaven.

So, however vulnerable our loved ones were here on earth, in heaven we are told they will be imperishable, undefiled and unfading as the salvation of their souls is completed and they become who God always meant them to be. This is the glory in which our loved one’s now share.

When we meet with friends and family and remember those whom we have lost, we sometimes wonder whether they too may be raising a glass of their favourite tipple.

Fanciful as this may sound, Luke’s Gospel tell us that this is not far from the truth. For Christ invites us all to a heavenly banquet. And this is an invitation which we would be foolish to ignore, it is a banquet where all will be fed and where their will not be a spare seat in the house. This is the celebration in which our loved one’s now share.

And so through our hurt, this hope slowly grows. A living hope founded on the resurrection of our Lord. The disciples who fled from Christ’s death, who disowned him in his hour of need, struggled to come to realise that Christ had conquered death. Those who first saw the empty tomb were dumbstruck and yet slowly they realise that he lived on. Slowly their hurt has replaced by hope. It took root in their hearts and grew.

So my prayer for all of us gathered here tonight is that the light of Christ, rising in glory may dispel the darkness of our hearts and minds. Amen.