NOVEMBER begins with the celebration of the Solemnity of
All Saints and the Commemoration of All Souls. These
celebrations
remind us of the wonderful reality that our life is not
just limited
by our earthly space-and-time existence, but has other
dimensions that
we often take for granted.
saints that is meant for all of us, since we are all
children of God,
and the Christian meaning of earthly suffering and death
that while
sobering is also uplifting, since these serve for our
purification and
ultimate redemption.
We have
to be wary of our tendency to get stuck to the
here and now, and to be so immersed in the drama and game
of our
earthly life that we fail to realize there is a lot more
than what we
have here, what we do and say now, what we are at
present.
life, all kinds of ugliness. But, hey, there is hope!
Christ has
redeemed us with his death! Sin and death have their
sting removed.
Let us learn to see beauty in all the chaos and ugliness
of our
present, and attain redemption in our seemingly hopeless
predicament.
work of redemption that culminated on the cross, can take
on anything
that we say, do or are, whether it is something good or
something bad.
the merits of Christ’s redemptive work by not putting
obstacles to
them or resisting his will and commandments. Better, if
we actively
follow God’s will. We may still commit errors, but if
done in good
faith, there is still hope. Christ will repeat what he
said just
before he died: “Forgive them, Father, for they know not
what they
do.”
No,
death definitely does not have the last word. It’s
life, everlasting life with God in heaven, or God forbid,
eternal
condemnation in hell. Neither are pain and suffering the
main
ingredient or the ultimate goal of our earthly life. It’s
joy, peace,
victory, success, offered to us by Christ himself, our
savior.
It’s
not even only life with God that we are meant for.
It’s life with everybody else, in a blessed communion of
saints that
God willed for all of us from all eternity. On his part,
he has given
everything that this ideal be made real. It’s now up to
us to choose
to follow God’s will or not.
These celebrations on November 1 and 2
should expand our
awareness that we belong to the family of God whose image
and likeness
we are and whose children we also are. As such, we are
not meant to
live in time alone, but also in eternity, not here on earth
alone, but
also in heaven.
We need
to be more aware of our duty to seek sanctity in
the middle of our earthly concerns. Even more, we need to
be skillful
in carrying it out. This duty, in so many words, is
combining our
earthly concerns with our eternal goal.
There
is nothing in our life that cannot be sanctifiable.
What matters is that we relate everything to God, whether
it is
something good, for which we ought to be thankful, or
something bad,
for which we have to be sorry.
Even
our sins, if repented, can be a tremendous trigger
for grace to be showered on us. We, of course, should try
to avoid sin
which is actually a matter of increasing our love for God
and for
others.
We need
to be clear about these fundamental truths, so we
be guided properly in our life, making the right choices,
since our
life is also not a matter of fate or luck, but rather of
choice, first
that of God who chooses to love us in spite of whatever,
and that of
ours. But we have to learn to choose properly.
Whatever situation we may find ourselves in, including the
worst scenarios possible to our human, earthly condition,
we can
always manage to find joy and peace if we allow ourselves
to be guided
by our Christian faith, rather than by just our human
estimation of
things.
So as
we visit the tombs of our loved ones, let’s remember
these fundamental truths that give the proper perspective
to our life
and everything in it, including our predicaments. These
truths would
shed on us the light for our life, and would reveal to us
the glory
awaiting us.
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