All Soul’s day.

Stewardship Commitment:

Tomorrow/today is All Souls’ day. But in our diocese it is stewardship Sunday as well, asking us to reflect how good a steward we are with the gifts God has granted us. Safeguarding material and human resources and using them responsibly and being generous in giving of time, talent, and treasure, is an expression of our gratefulness and love for God and one another.

Four year old Morgan’s  Mom and Dad were just starting to teach her about giving. As the ushers came down the aisle with the offering plates, Morgan asked her mom what was happening. Mom told her, "They are taking up the offering, and when they get here you can put your quarter in the offering plate."

Morgan replied, "But this quarter is for Jesus." Mom explained how, by putting her quarter in the offering plate she was giving it to Jesus. And she told about all the ways in which her gift would be used for God's work. As the plate came down her pew, Morgan carefully put her quarter in the plate, then turned to her Mom, and loud enough for everyone in the whole congregation to hear, asked, "If that money is for Jesus, why wasn't there more in the plate?"

Morgan understood the purpose of stewardship. she understood that all that we give is for Jesus. The basic tenet of stewardship is that all that we have is from God and IS God's. We are simply the stewards, those put in charge of that which God has given us.

In my evaluation in 4 months, you all are pretty good stewards in the way you give to the parish. You are good in giving your time, talent and treasure, especially at the parish activities I observed. But we can be better. Last year’s financial statement showed $17,000.00 debt. So, we may need to push a little bit more this year to get to our goal. But I am sure you will do that. Otherwise we will have to do some more picnics, may be one every other month.  But remember to give with love. Don’t commit or give in the offering place if you really don’t love to give to God. I don’t think we want to use that kind of money in the parish.  St.John Paul II said: Remember the widow’s mite. She threw into the treasury of the temple only two small coins, but with them, all her great love…. It is, above all, the interior value of the gift that counts: the readiness to share everything, the readiness to give oneself.

Next Sunday you will be asked to fill in the commitment sheet. So, pray about it how much you are willing and able to give to the Lord, through the parish community, for the parish ministry.

Today the world's one billion Catholics are praying for the eternal rest of our brothers and sisters who died in friendship with Christ, but who hadn't yet reached spiritual maturity. God has taken them into his spiritual hospital, purgatory, where he is healing and purifying them from the wounds caused by their sins here on earth.

Purgatory is just inside heaven's gate, where God lovingly purifies and heals his children from the damage their sins inflicted on their souls while they were still on earth.

Through today's prayers, we are speeding up that painful process and hastening our departed brothers' and sisters' full entrance into heaven. The Church is a good mother, and she knows that it is a good thing to think of and pray for the dead, so she gives us All Souls' Day.

But not all Christians believe in purgatory and the value of praying for the dead. They say, among other things, that since the word purgatory doesn't appear in the Bible, it must have been invented by popes and bishops as a way to frighten and manipulate ignorant Christians during the Middle Ages.

Although the word itself doesn't appear in Scripture, there are various passages that have always been interpreted as referring to it. For example, in Matthew 12:32 Jesus points out that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the only sin that will not be forgiven, "either in this world or in the next," implying that some purification from sin does take place after death.

He also speaks more than once about sinners being kept in prison until they have "paid the last penny" (Matthew 5:26, Luke 12:59), referring to a period of purification between earthly life and heaven.

One of the most explicit passages is when St Paul says that some people will be saved, but only "as through fire" (1 Corinthians 3:15), in other words, by being passively purified after death.

The Second Book of Maccabees (12:41-45) praises offering prayers for the dead. Second Maccabees 12:39-46 describes how Judas Maccabeus and members of his Jewish military forces collected the bodies of some fallen comrades who had been killed in battle. When they discovered these men were carrying “sacred tokens of the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbids the Jews to wear” (v. 40), Judas and his companions discerned they had died as a punishment for sin. Therefore, Judas and his men “turned to prayer beseeching that the sin which had been committed might be wholly blotted out . . . He also took up a collection . . . and sent it to Jerusalem to provide for a sin offering. In doing this he acted very well and honorably . . . Therefore he made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin” (42-43, 46). The protestant brethren do not have the book of Maccabees in their bible. So they refute the concept of Purgatory.

Common sense also tells there is a place between heaven and hell. In our court system when one is tried he may be judged a culprit and be punished or be innocent and be freed. But in some cases the person may be partially culpable, not fully involved in the crime. So such a  person gets a minor punishment, and will not be freed until that small punishment is suffered. This applies to heaven’s court as well. Scripture says nothing unclean goes to heaven, because God is all holy. So, if there is some impurity that has to be cleansed it may be done so.

Praying for the dead and offering Masses for them has been in practice since the beginning of the Church.

St Augustine's mother, in the 300s, asked him to "remember her at the altar" when she died - in other words, to pray for the repose of her soul, just as we are praying for the deceased today.

Later that same century, St John Chrysostom, wrote simply: "Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them. Remembering this in every Mass we pray for the deceased. In our creed we say we believe in the communion of saints: which means we on earth and those in heaven are in communion with those in purgatory and we can help them with our prayers. As we remember all the departed souls today let’s make it a point to remember and pray for our dead so that they may reach their eternal home soon.