Today we remember in prayer all our loved ones who have died. St. Paul reminds us that nothing can separate us for the love of God, not even death:
“What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels…nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35, 38-39).
In the Eucharistic Prayer at mass we ask God to remember those who have died and God assures us that he does remember them and that they are in his loving hands as we hear in the Old Testament book of Wisdom:
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” (Wisdom 3:1-3).
The Eucharistic Prayer reminds us that God alone knows what is in the human heart and his salvation is offered to both Christians and non-Christians:
“Remember our brothers and sisters, who have fallen asleep in the peace of your Christ, and all the dead, whose faith you alone have known. Admit them to rejoice in the light of your face, and in the resurrection give them the fullness of life.” (Eucharist Prayer for Various Needs IV, “Jesus, Who Went About Doing Good”)
Finally, we pray also for ourselves as all of us will ultimately face death:
Grant also to us, when our earthly pilgrimage is done, that we may come to an eternal dwelling place and live with you forever.” (Eucharist Prayer for Various Needs IV).
Today we remember in prayer all those who have died that they may come to an eternal dwelling place in the presence of God.