St. Joseph of the Lakes

We have entered into the season of the dead. This past week we celebrated both All Saints day and All Souls’ Day. Our scriptures in the last weeks of the church year will be reflecting the end of time and the final judgement. The physical darkness of the onrushing Fall helps direct us to the end times. There are some who react to this season with fear and trepidation concerned about the judgement that God will unleash upon humanity for all of it’s sins. Yet the scriptures and the holidays of the Church speak of a great mercy being celebrated at the end of time, not a great judgement.

Jesus tells us that the end times will be a great wedding feast in which the groom (Jesus) will be joined to his bride (the Church). Saint Paul reminds us that we are all part of a singular body sharing the same Holy Spirit. We live through a cycle in which we start knowing (physically) our connection to another human being (our mothers) and gradually becoming independent from them to finally once again realize that we are all interconnected. This is a crucially important realization. We are not individually “saved” but as a group called the bride of Christ. In our celebration of All Saints and All Souls we reflect on the members of our body that have preceeded us to our new home.

We will soon be entering into the season of Advent. It is a brooding season that reflects on our need for unity with God and it culminates in the great season of the incarnation. God becomes one with us and we are united in the divinity of God. This is our great hope in the midst of the darkness of the season. The light will always win.