It’s been a long day, like many of your days. Someone calls or shows up at the door late at night asking for help. Do you ignore the call? Turn them away at the door?

A feast like this is a day of great assurances. There’s nothing to fear. Not misfortune or failure, not suffering or loss, not death or oblivion. “All is calm,” as the hymn of another season reminds us.

Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life. The person who aligns with me hungers no more and thirsts no more, ever. I have told you this explicitly because even though you have seen me in action, you don’t really believe me. Every person the Father gives me eventually comes running to me.

I’m afraid of flying. I know that my fear is irrational. I know that air transportation is one of the safest forms of travel. So I try to conquer my anxiety by trying to understand why I’m afraid. I think it’s simply fear of the unknown.

We pray to be with God now and at the hour of our death.

The dead are to be remembered, not only because they are missed and still loved, but also because they were the “faithful departed.” They died, as the liturgy prays, in God’s friendship. Do we see death as the absolute end, or do we see it as crown of life, a rebirth to a new life, just like Baptism?

The Feast of the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, commonly known as All Souls Day, is the day the church has set aside to pray for everyone who has died. All Souls, however, is not only for the benefit of those who have gone before us.

This existence of ours is as transient as autumn clouds. To watch the birth and death of beings is like looking at the movements of a dance. A lifetime is a flash of lightning in the sky. Rushing by, like a torrent down a steep mountain. —Buddha (c. 563-c. 483 b.c.)