All Souls Day: A reflection. 2014

My father, Walt, as a baby.

 When I was a young man, I had all sorts of goals. My foremost goal was to marry Ruth. I was going to compose music. Ruthie and I were going to have a family and raise our children together. All those goals have come true. Ruthie and I married. We have a wonderful family. I have composed music. However, in the end, I have found that while all these life goals have been met, they are not my life’s goal. 62 years of life has taught me that they are goals with which God has graciously given me to assist me in reaching the ultimate goal in my life, and that is to love as God loves.

We hear of this love all the time in scriptures. “God loved the world so much that he sent us his own Son.” There is not greater love than for one to lay down his/her life for a friend.” “Love one another as I have loved you.” Or, as we heard in the gospel last Sunday, “Love God with all your heart, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.”

We celebrate today the lives of the souls who have taught us how to love. Parents, siblings, children, friends who have dedicated their lives in teaching us love. Some of these people are still present with us and some have passed from this life to a much higher and better form of life.

My dad as a young man.

 In the song, “Gather Us In,” there is a beautiful verse that goes like this:

“Not in the dark of buildings confining, not in some heaven light years away, but here in this space, the new light is shining, now is the Kingdom, now is the day. Gather us in and hold us forever. Gather us in and make us your own. Gather us in all people’s together, fire of love in our flesh and our bone.” (“Gather Us In”, Marty Haugen) 

We rarely get the chance to sing this 4^th verse of “Gather Us In,” but its few lines of text express so much. So often we think of heaven as some place out there, when in reality heaven is not some physical place, but more a sense of being one with the entirety of God. The Kingdom of God is here, right now just beyond the range of our 5 senses, but present none the less for those who seek it. Our loved ones are just as present to us. Their bodies may have died, but the ones we loved, who for a brief time inhabited those bodies, are still alive and with us, not in some heaven light years away, but here, right now. 

My sister, Mary Ruth, and Dad when she graduated in 8th grade.

When I think of the saints I have known, those foremost in my mind are my dad and my sister, Mary Ruth. I will be celebrating the 10^th anniversary of my dad’s passing on November 13^th, and have just celebrated the 17^th anniversary of my sister’s passing this past August 10^th. It is hard to believe that so many years have passed since their death, the years going by so quickly.

I remember my sister’s passing very vividly. Early Sunday morning, August 10th, my family, my  mom and dad, my brother, and a dear friend of my sister, Bob Conlin, gathered in her room, Bob Conlin gently cradling her head as she passed from this life to a much better life. This was reflected in her face moving one wracked in pain to relaxing into a smile. Mary in her brief life of 42 years, dedicated much of her life in service to others even though she was suffering greatly from her own chronic illness. As an Occupational Therapist she assisted and helped many in cardiac wards in the big hospitals of the Twin Cities until her own illness prevented her from doing so the last 10 years of her life. Those she assisted have never forgotten the loving care she gave them.

As I look at the stain glass windows in this church, my dad’s image should be there among them. He is the greatest example of a man living the Great Commandment of Jesus that I have ever known, surpassing all the known saints. I remember the night that he died, getting the call from the hospital that he was close to death, and after getting mom reaching his room only to find out that he died 5 minutes before our arrival. I sat next to him on the chair, reflecting on how much he loved others and what a font of wisdom he possesses. People of all ages and from all over sought him out for his wisdom. I had at that moment the sinking realization that as one generation passes on gifts to the next, I was to be the next font of wisdom in the family. I thought at the moment, “Boy, all those coming to me are really going to be out of luck!”

My sister, Mary, in her late twenties.

 Yet, we carry within us the wherewithal to pass on the gifts that our loved ones have given us. 

Our own bodies, are in essence, the depository of all our ancestors, their genes shaping who we are in so many ways, from the color or our eyes, height, hair, or lack thereof, even to the gifts and skills we all possess. 

On this All Souls Day when we remember our loved ones who have passed on, let us also continue to celebrate their presence now within our lives. Their bodies may have died. I can lead you to the exact place in Roselawn Cemetery in Roseville where the bodies of my sister and dad are buried. But the only thing that is present in those graves are their bodies. They have evolved and become something far greater than who they were when they inhabited those bodies.

 

Just because their bodies have died, does not mean that our loved ones have passed from us. The bond of love that links us with them is never severed. They are as much present to us now than they ever were. The first reading from the Book of Wisdom today expresses this so well. 

“The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them. They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction and their going forth from us, utter destruction. But they are in peace … In the time of their visitation they shall shine, and shall dart about as sparks through stubble; they shall judge nations and rule over peoples, and the LORD shall be their King forever.”

Dad, Mary, and Mom, the year Mary died.

 Oh yes, our loved ones are with us right now as much as they were when they were alive. They are present to us, loving us every moment of our lives. I feel the presence of my sister and my dad so vividly these days. They have never left me. We may get distracted from time to time, but if we pay attention, just out of the corner of our eyes, we will see them, their light shining, darting about as sparks through stubble.