Alive in God’s Heart

Homily: Commemoration of the Faithful Departed

Wisdom 3:1–9 / Romans 6:3–4, 8–9 / John 6:37–40

2 November 2025

Fr. Ricky Cañet Montañez, AA

When someone we love dies, it feels like a part of our heart goes missing — that space reserved exclusively for them. Over the years, it gets easier to manage the longing, but there are days we wake up and remember, and that quiet ache returns. It is a pain words cannot really fix. I have heard some say that such pain is proof of something beautiful: it means we still love.

Today, some if not all may have noticed that instead of the liturgy for the Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time, the Mass Commemorating our Faithful Departed has taken precedence. The change in mass focus reflects the Church’s profound theological emphasis on praying for the dead, as an act of charity and faith in the Communion of Saints.  The emphasis today is more than death itself, but it is really about love — a love that does not stop, even when the person we love is no longer here.

Just the other week, I was talking to a dear friend from a parish where I previously served. She suffered the tragedy of suddenly losing her daughter a few months ago. Every month since their family’s loss, she would post a photo of her daughter online — with a heartfelt message that would end with: “We miss you. We love you always.”  She told me, “Father, people assume it is a way of managing my pain, but for me, it is a way of remembering her with love. I cannot hold her anymore, but I can still love her.”  And that really touched me. Because that is what we do when we pray for our departed — we continue to love. We are not talking to just memories; we are speaking to souls who are alive in God.

The Book of Wisdom says, “The souls of the just are in the hand of GOD,” (Wisdom 3:1)and it offers such a comforting image. Our loved ones — parents, friends, even children who have passed — they are not gone. They are safe. God is holding them close with His gentle hands. Our loved ones are not lost. They have simply gone ahead to be with Jesus.  St. Paul tells us, “If we have died with Christ, we shall also live with Him.” Romans 6:8) That is not just poetry — it is a promise, and someday, by God’s mercy, we will see our departed loved ones again. This is echoed in our gospel when Jesus assures us, “Everyone who comes to me I will not reject… and I shall raise them up on the last day.” (John 6:37) Their names, their faces, their laughter — all are alive in God’s heart.

Our faith teaches us that no one we love is ever forgotten. When we pass from this life, we hope to all be reunited in Christ together with the Communion of the Saints, and until then, it is prayer that bridges the divide. While we who remain offer our prayers for them, those in heaven continue to pray for us and offer spiritual guidance so we can bear the burdens of life. As we try to make good use of our time on earth, we must strive to live and love that we may also be remembered with love. 

Today, as we light candles, visit graves, or whisper their names in prayer, we take time to mourn our dead but more importantly to remember them with gratitude because every tear we shed is a sign that love is still alive. Death may end a life, but it cannot end love.  Love is stronger than death — because love comes from God, and God never dies. Let us pray that when our own journey ends, our hope may be justified. May we see that those we have missed for so long were never really far away — but simply waiting on the other side of love.