Thoughts on All Saints’ and All Souls’ days

Fr. Leo Pabayo

ALL Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day are two feast days that we Filipinos like to celebrate. We take time out to go to the cemeteries to commemorate this day. It has become part of our Filipino culture. But like the other aspects of our culture there is a deeper meaning to this that we ought to delve on from a philosophical and religious point of view.

It will benefit to reflect and understand what it really is all about. There is a reality here that most if not all people naturally give importance to.

These feast days are about our loved ones who are now either on the way to or have already entered the new and glorious life after having been saved from “this valley of tears” which is our condition in in our present life. These feast days are again a good occasion to awaken our faith oi the truth that after death there is something more. Life does not just end in death and then there is nothing more. That more is the new life that awaits us after we have departed from this present life that we live now. These feast days are about the new life that we have received from Christ by virtue of his having risen from the dead and granting new life to all who believe in Him. This is a good occasion for us to meditate on this truth. For on this truth lies the ultimate meaning of our life. It is helpful to start our reflection by asking the very basic questions about life.

What is life all about? What are we in this world for?

For everything there is a reason. From the smallest atom to the biggest planet or the galaxy. The changes in the seasons, the changes in the climate, all these have a reason. All material things, animate and inanimate have a purpose for their existence. It is up for us to discover them. The discovery in themselves already give some satisfaction for our desire to know and understand the world that we live in and what they mean to our life.

Our reason tells us that the purpose of the things that we see around us is evident on their nature. The purpose of a grain of rice or wheat are obvious to us. They are there to be food for our bodies. All other living things have their purposes in this world.

The purpose is always commensurate to the nature of things. Take human life for example. Human life has its own purpose or purposes. Life is enjoyed by man according to his nature as a human being. To a certain extent we are like the animals. Like the animals he seeks enjoyment for things that satisfy the desire of our senses. However, we are more than our senses and more than the animals. There are many other forms of enjoyment in human life that are not of the senses or sensual. We are by nature intelligent and free. There is no limit to what we can understand and enjoy. Some of the great joy that we experience is in understanding the mystery of life as we penetrate the meaning of things that we perceive with our senses. Scientists and well-known artists unveil the true the good and the beautiful that lies underneath what our senses perceive.

The true and good and beautiful things that are understood and appreciated by our intellect open our minds to something more. There is always something more of the true, the good and the beautiful that we desire to know and enjoy. Our intelligence that is able to understand them opens our mind up to something more. Because our minds are open to something that is more we are therefore not determined by one or the other of the many things in this world that we perceive and understand. We can choose that which good or better or best for us good. We can choose what we want to enjoy. The greater the good or true or beautiful the greater is our enjoyment.

The greatest joy of all is that which we call love. The greater the object of our love the greater the greater is our joy. In a sense, life is a journey toward a quest for the greater love in our life. The greatest that we can love that is evident to us, greater than any other thing in the world is the love of person whose truth, goodness and beauty our minds and heart are open to know.

We are limited in our understanding and knowledge but there are times when our hearts and minds open up to something good, true and beautiful in people. The Christian philosophers teach us what they have learned from Christ, namely, that the purpose for giving us life is to know love and serve people and ultimately God who is the source of all goodness and love. Surely, God’s purpose for giving us life is so that we may share in God’s life.  We were created by God out of his love and generosity. He created us simply because he was overflowing with love and he wanted to share more and more of his life with us.