by Evelyn Jock
Two special events, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, run concurrently on November 1st and 2nd every year. All Saints Day, a day of obligation was celebrated on Wednesday, 1st November 2023, a day which we honour all saints, known and unknown. Whereas All Souls Day was celebrated on Thursday, 2nd November 2023, a day to commemorate all the faithful departed, especially those who have died and gone before us recently and in the past.
On All Saints Day, mass was celebrated by Rt. Rev. Bishop Julius D. Gitom in the St. Mary’s Cathedral at 7.30pm. As it was a day of obligation, there was a good crowd of parishioners attending mass that evening. Bishop Julius exhort that All Saints, a day when the universal church glorifies her saints who are made up of ordinary people like us. One thing that is extraordinary about the lives of saints is that they are friends of God who are opened and received the grace of God in their lives. They, the saints, known and unknown, lived a life of faithfulness and the message of the gospel on All Saints Day, reflects on the Beatitudes.
These saints may be our relatives, parents who have gone before us and they are so many of them that it was difficult to allocate a day for each of them. Thus, All Saints Day is a special day for them. Saints may be young or old that we can imitate. Bishop Julius recalled St. Theresa, the little flower, who prior to entering the convent at a young age, was already living an exemplary way of life and these are saints that we can imitate. Saints have sacrificed their life through living the Christian life, like the martyrs from Vietnam and Korea and saints who are teachers of the word of God, throughout their life the face of Christ shown forth.
He said that it is not impossible that we all become saint, we would not be canonised, after all holiness is universal. He like the expression of Pope Francis, ‘do not be afraid to be holy’. He said we all want to be holy despite our weaknesses and failures
The solemnity of all saints reminded us of the fact that there are present. We are in communion with them and we are also reminded that they continue to intercede for us and in that way we are surrounded by a great crowd of witnesses who have gone before us and those who are known to us are praying for us. The Beatitudes presents us a situation where a community is accepting the values of God himself. All Saints’ mass was a great occasion of thanksgiving for all of us where we thank the saints of God because alternately this is our feast as well and that we are all called to be saints.
St Paul was constantly calling his communities, ‘you saints of God’. We are all saints of God, and that is an encouragement to all of us to strive for a live of beatitudes. The saints are our friends who are faithfully supporting and encouraging us and that is why the teaching of the church, we are in communion with the saint. Let us pray that we have the attitude and courage of the saints so that one day we can be with them counted among the saints.
All Souls Day started in the morning at 9 am with the blessings of the 3 Catholic cemeteries at Kam Jai Yen, Sibuga and Mile 12, by priests and Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion. There were already a crowd of parishioners sending flowers to their loved one and praying for their souls as early as 6am.
Fr. Raymond Lee at the Sibuga Cemetery on 2/11/2023
The parishioners who came for the blessing of the graves.
Fr. Raymond Lee, Assistant Parish Priest, led the prayer at Sibuga Cemetery. He explained that All Souls Day was a day when we remember those who have gone before us and that we celebrate this day for our own self and for the hope that we have. Now we know that after we die, life does not diminished or disappear. We know that after we die, there is a new life and we pray for our loved ones who have gone before us and at the same time we also pray for our own salvation so that one day all of us will be gathered together in heaven and share the love of God together. After the prayer, Fr Raymond and the extraordinary minister went round blessing the graves under the very hot sun.
Fr. Raymond blessing the graves.
The evening mass for All Souls was celebrated in the evening at 7.30pm. Bishop Julius who was there presiding over the mass reminded that on All Saints, we were glorifying the Lord for the saints and that evening we came again to pray for the Holy Souls, souls that are not holy enough to enter into heaven and for this we are reminded of the 3 dimensions of the church of Christ, those who are already purified and are in heaven, souls who are holy but not holy enough to enter into heaven and they are in purgatory according to the teaching of the church and it is these souls that we are praying for, asking for God’s mercy that they may one day enter heaven.
Bishop Julius celebrated Holy Souls’ Mass with Fr. Kessel from Holland who was on holiday in Sandakan
Bishop Julius explained that purgatory is not a place of punishment but God placed the holy souls in a place of grace, to be cleansed and purified. He said that we should thank God for his wisdom and blessings and that one day we would all be with God and the saints in heaven. He also mentioned that there were families at mass that evening who had their loved ones passed away just recently and they are experiencing sadness, grieve and feelings of loss, but have come for mass to pray and show their love for the faithful departed. He reminded that we are always at one with those who have gone before us, we feel that they are with us still and it is that feeling of love that we continue to pray and commend them to God. He exclaimed that the challenge for all of us as we continue our pilgrim way here on earth is that as we remember our loved ones who have gone before us, we like to remember their goodness and faithfulness. He also stated that as we come to received God in Communion we include our departed love one. ‘Eternal rest grant upon them Lord, may the perpetual light shine upon them, May they rest in peace, Amen’.