by Fr Francis Anthony
Wisdom 3:1-9
Psalm 22
Romans 5:5-11
Matthew 11:25-30
Theme: The Lord is my Help
We are fortunate to begin the day around the altar, praying for the departed. It shows us that we are a community, we are a family. We remember one another, not only those whom we see. And among the departed, for all of us it would be our close families, our close friends, our classmates, our neighbours, those who bend backwards to help us, our teachers and we can carry on. They all have played a role for me to be what I am today. Yes.
And today, when we pray for the departed, we are being grateful to them. Yes. Let us not just have that simple idea “I have prayed. That person is in purgatory will go to heaven.” It is more. It is showing my gratitude to them.
It is the living church that is praying for those who have left us.
The Lord, as given in the First Reading, has prepared a banquet on the Holy Mountain. Very symbolically we can refer it to Calvary, the small hillock where Christ was crucified. That is where, in Saint John’s Gospel, we have that beautiful saying:
This day you will be with me in Paradise.
That assurance that we are having, let us thank God for having given us an insight into our lives. It is not just we are born, we are dead. No. Life continues. What hampers is our sinfulness. But we have a God, again in Saint John’s Gospel, He said to the woman who was caught in adultery:
Go and sin no more.
That is what He is saying to all of us today. Go, be on your mission. And these days, we are speaking of the Synodal Church, we are speaking of mission which we celebrated two Sundays ago, we are speaking of bridge building. But what hampers these is our sins, our falling back to the rut where we are saying “No” to God and “Yes” to ourselves.
Today, as we are praying for the departed, let us also pray for ourselves that we would be always grateful and ready to be by the side of Jesus. Yes. He is on our side but let us make sure that we are on His side. Like the two disciples of Emmaus. Jesus walked with them but they did not recognise Him.
Let us ask God to help us to recognise His closeness to us and let all of us walk hand in hand to the kingdom that Jesus has promised us.
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