In Canada, it’s expensive to own a house. The average cost of a home is around C$600,000 or P25 million! Most overseas Filipinos I know work two to three jobs to save up for it. We already had our own house back in Manila. It took us years of tears and hard work to build and pay for it. Migrating meant leaving our house and renting three basement rooms in Canada, where we are now.

I realized that a house—no matter how big or small, no matter what country it’s in—is just temporary. What’s important are the people in it and if we are able to build a home with them. God assures us that we have a place in His house, our real home. Are we willing to do what it takes to enter it?

Friends, no matter how busy we get trying to make ends meet, may we never forget our end goal: to be with Jesus in the place He has prepared for us. Live today knowing that you have a home with Jesus! 

Mia Bueno (buenos@yahoo.com)

reflect

Are you building a house or a home? Are you willing to do what it takes to enter God’s place for you?

Lord, help us to work on what is permanent and true—our home with You in heaven. Amen. 

All Souls, pray for us.

First Reading | 2 Maccabees 12:43-46 (or Wisdom 3:1-9)

Today, we remember our departed brothers and sisters in a special way. We recognize that when someone dies, he or she still needs to undergo purification. Let us pray that those who have died may receive the fullness of Christ’s resurrection. Let us also ask those who have already passed into eternal glory to pray and intercede for us.

⁴³ Judas, the ruler of Israel, took up a collection among all his soldiers, amounting to two thousand silver drachmas, which he sent to Jerusalem to provide for an expiatory sacrifice. In doing this he acted in a very excellent and noble way, inasmuch as he had the resurrection of the dead in view; ⁴⁴ for if he were not expecting the fallen to rise again, it would have been useless and foolish to pray for them in death. ⁴⁵ But if he did this with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. ⁴⁶ Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be freed from this sin. 

Responsorial Psalm | Psalm 103:8, 10, 13-14, 15-16, 17-18 (or Psalm 116:5, 6, 10-11, 15-16)

R: The Lord is kind and merciful.

⁸ Merciful and gracious is the Lord, slow to anger and abounding in kindness. ¹⁰ Not according to our sins does he deal with us, nor does he requite us according to our crimes. (R) ¹³ As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. ¹⁴ For he knows how we are formed; he remembers that we are dust. (R) 15 Man’s days are like those of grass; like a flower of the field he blooms; ¹⁶ The wind sweeps over him and he is gone, and his place knows him no more. (R) ¹⁷ But the kindness of the Lord is from eternity to eternity toward those who fear him, And his justice toward children’s children ¹⁸ among those who keep his covenant and remember to fulfill his precepts. (R)

Second Reading | Romans 8:31-35, 37-39 (or Romans 6:3-4, 8-9)

Let us place our lives under the grace of salvation offered by Jesus. This is the only way to salvation and true human fulfillment. As we celebrate the Feast of All Souls’ today, let us pray for those who have departed this life, that they may be with God in eternity. This journey begins with the present day as we live according to the nature that God has given us, abiding in His will and surrendering all to Him.

³¹ Brothers and sisters: If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, will he not also give us everything else along with him? ³³ Who will bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who acquits us. ³⁴ Who will condemn? It is Christ Jesus who died, rather, was raised, who also is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. ³⁵ What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? ³⁷ No, in all these things, we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Gospel | John 14:1-6 (or John 6:37-40)

The society undergirded by Western Christianity is in decline due to the loss of a true sense of sin brought about by relativism. When everything becomes relative, the end result is moral chaos. This is precisely what is happening in the Western world today. When the truth is not anchored and individuals construct their own truth paradigms, we lose a foundation upon which to build a society. 

Gospel Acclamation 

This is the will of my Father, says the Lord, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life. 

¹ Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. ² In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. ⁴ Where I am going you know the way.” ⁵ Thomas said to him, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” ⁶ Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Read the Bible in one year! Read JOB 34 - 37 today.

The Promise of a Beloved

When I was in my teens, I asked one of my favorite Jesuit teachers, “Father, what is our greatest reassurance that there is life after this one?” His answer surprised me and left me incredulous. He just said, “Jesus said so.” That teacher was brilliant, so I was disappointed because his answer seemed like a weak appeal to authority. Back then, I wanted an answer that I could bet the rest of my life on. 

Decades later, now a Jesuit myself, I imagine that if I were asked the same question, I would answer the same, “Because Jesus said so.” How then did I come to place my bets on a life conviction that once seemed so flimsy? What happened?

Well, life happened—its ups and downs, its winding paths, its sicknesses and storms, its dyings and risings. And through it all, I found a God who has been more faithful to me than I can ever be faithful myself.

And love happened—with me, falling in that “quite absolute and final way” (from a line attributed to the late Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ).

And Jesus happened—with me, finding that He is The One and that His love is unparalleled.

And I came to learn that we bet our lives not on answers from books but on the promises of people whom we love and who love us into being. We can bet our lives on those who have been steadfastly faithful to us. We bet our lives on the promises of those who take our best interests to heart. It took a while for me to realize that Jesus checks all those boxes.

Today, we give thanks for Jesus’ promise to prepare a place for us. And we pray that our beloved departed are already there. 

Fr. Mark Lopez, SJ

Reflection question

When did you get the firm conviction that there is life after death? 

I pray, Lord, for my departed loved ones—that they are now with You, enjoying heavenly bliss in the company of the angels and saints. Amen.

Today, I pray for: ____________________________________