We are all heading toward the resurrection. We will belong to God completely. Human need and longings will no longer apply. There are no needs in heaven. God fills all the needs. We will not be alone. We will be part of that great communion, the Communion of Saints.
That’s why in this month of November, the Church points to the end times in the three great feasts of All Saints, All Souls and Christ the King. All three point beyond to eternity. In November we pray to All Saints to pray for us. In November we pray for All Souls of the dead to assist them should they need purification before they join God in the great company of saints with Christ the King of the Universe. Pope Emeritus talks of a repaired pot that is cracked, made perfect. St. Catherine of Genoa speaks of rust on the soul that is burned away by the sun.
The fullness of this communion awaits us when we see them and our beloved dead again face to face when our time comes, when we, too, have been purified, when all our needs will be satisfied. We can only begin to imagine what this will be like.
When we still had a diocesan radio, the back of the Relevant Radio van used to ask: “What if it is true?” We hope it’s true. That’s what faith is: the hope in things unseen.
I remember a story of a man who was present at his father’s death in a Catholic hospital. After his father had expired, he went to the chapel. He prayed before the Blessed Sacrament. He prayed the prayer he learned from his parents, the rosary. As he prayed, he told me that he was filled by a sense of light, of peace, of presence. Hearing stories like this increases our faith. The scriptures do as well. They remind us of our story and renew us in our faith, in our hope in things unseen. All our experiences of Christ today are experiences of the risen Christ. Because Christ has died and is risen, it is the risen Christ we are experiencing. We know the resurrection in our own being. The risen Christ lives and moves in us, to give us encouragement and hope (2 Thessalonians. We must pay attention.
The three feasts in the month of November challenge us to focus on our last end. We ask all the saints to pray for us as we pray for all the souls. It is one great company, on heaven and on earth, united around the person of the risen Christ who is King of the Universe!