All Souls

The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls)

Information about All Souls
Readings for All Souls

Reading 1 Wis 3:1-9

Responsorial Psalm Ps 25:6 and 7b, 17-18, 20-21
R. No one who waits for you, O Lord, will ever be put to shame.

Reading II Rom 5:5-11 (or Rom 6:3-9)

Gospel Jn 6:37-40

Homily:

“All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church # 1030)

There was once a very small boy who went out with his friends to play “hide and seek” in the woods near his house. While they were out there playing, the boy found a great hiding place deep in a thicket and crawled in. What he did not know was that great hiding place was already taken – by a skunk who was, as skunks do, sleeping soundly through the day. When the boy invaded his space, the skunk did what skunks do when they are frightened and spayed the boy.

The boy was lucky, he did not get the full force of the spray, but he got enough that the game was never finished, none of the other children would come within six feet of him. When he got home, he made the second major mistake of the day, he walked into the house. His mother rapidly became aware that all was not well and marched him right out the door again. She told him to wait on the back deck until she could get some things.

A few minutes later she brought him some old cloths (actually she dug them out a bag she was going to throw away) and had him strip down and put on the other cloths. She then had him put the play cloths he had been wearing into a plastic garbage bag. She still would not let the boy come back into the house – he really stank.

She went back in and came back with a large plastic tub she had stored her winter sweaters in and put it on the deck. She began filling the tub with warm water from the sink in the kitchen. When there was enough, she told the boy to take off the old cloths and put them into the plastic bag too. She had him get in and handed him a bar of soap and told him to get busy.

The boy washed and washed. Three times he washed his hands and head (his head was the worst because he had found the skunk head first). When he had finished, he called his mom who came out. She took a sniff from the door and told him to keep on washing. A short time later she brought out two large cans of Tomato Juice. She poured them into a plastic bowl and made the boy put his head over the bowl. Holding her nose with one hand she proceeded to rinse the boy’s head with the juice (she had heard somewhere that this would get rid of the smell.

After several rinsings even her now desensitized nose could still detect the odor so she told the boy to finish washing his hands and chest one more time and left the deck. When the boy was done, his mother came back with a stool and her clippers. The boy’s heart sank to his shoes (if he had had shoes on). He knew what she was going to do. He climbed onto the stool dejectedly and she proceeded to give him the shortest haircut he had ever received (the boy later wondered if she had once been an Army barber).
That was probably the most miserable afternoon the boy had ever spent, but in the end he was allowed to come into the house and was the cleanest he had been, probably since he was bourn he thought. That night at dinner, he and his family all laughed about what had happened and they would laugh for years to come. The boy never went near skunks again.

Today as we pray for those who have gone before us in faith, let us add a special prayer for those who are still in the process of being cleaned so they can join the Father and his Holy company of angels and saints in the heavenly kingdom. Purgatory serves a very real and useful purpose. After all, who among us would like to go in and stink up heaven?

Pax