Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Church on Nov. 2, 2014 All Souls Day by Beverly Bingle,RCWP

What is resurrection?
What do we mean when we say that Jesus rose from the dead,
and what does it mean to say
that we will be raised on the last day?
For the early disciples
it had to have been both difficult and inspiring
to be caught up in the day-to-day experience
of Jesus as their teacher and friend,
only to see him killed
and then, within a few days of his death,
to begin, one after another,
to experience him as alive in their lives.
That’s what we remember as the resurrection—
their experience, and the resulting conviction,
that the Spirit of the Messiah—the Christ—the Anointed—
lived in each of them
and among them whenever they gathered.
Hearing the “good news” of Jesus’ life, and death, and resurrection
in and among them
brought even more followers to his Way.
Followers like us.
We follow the Way of Jesus as best we can,
loving God and our neighbors with all our being
and trying to walk strong in peaceful non-violence.
Like our forebears in faith,
we too experience the Divine Presence among us—
the risen Christ—
and the peace that surpasses understanding.
_______________________________________
Today we remember Jesus
as the unique expression of the Divine Presence
And we remember each of our loved ones—
our family, our friends—
as unique expressions of the Divine Presence.
Our ancestors in faith, those first followers of the Way,
had to study their scriptures
to fit their new experience into their tradition.
So too, today we read from Paul’s letter to the Romans
and we also have to peel away
the ancient cosmology and the atonement theology
until we find
that it’s the love of God
poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit
and
that we’re reconciled to God
because we follow the Way of Jesus.
It’s the same with John’s Gospel:
we have to peel back the Johannine cosmology
that sees God as “out there” somewhere,
sent to save us because we’re a sinful people
incapable of making any restitution to an angry God.
Once we look through the lens of present-day cosmology,
we see that we’re living a new story
that knows a universe bigger than ever,
and the science of the Cosmic Hatch
and the Higgs boson
and string theory
so that the concept of God as the ground of our being
takes on wider and deeper meaning than ever before.
Brain theory is expanding, too,
and the power of prayer has been proved,
even when the people we pray for
don’t even know that we’re praying for them.
When we take a look at the scriptures with our modern eyes,
we can recognize the experience of those early Christians
as they prayed together
and encountered the risen Christ in one another,
among family and friends,
and in strangers on the road.
Many of us have had experiences
of loved ones among us after they died,
experiences that we can’t explain
but that we understand as real and holy.
When we gather and read the scriptures and break the bread,
we experience ourselves as the body of Christ,
individually and collectively.
The abiding presence of the risen Christ
remains in each and every part of us
and in all of us together as God’s people.
_______________________________________
Today we gather to remember.
We walk the way, confident that it’s the right path.
The kin-dom of God is at hand.
It’s a mystical experience,
with all the communion of saints here in this chapel with us—
those who have gone before,
those who are with us now,
and those who are yet to come.
We are all one in God and God in us.
Our brother Jesus has shown us the way,
and he is with us;
we are his body.
It’s a companionship of empowerment,
as Diarmuid O’Murchu calls it.
We are all one,
and we will always be part of the journey, on the Way,
one with the One God of All That Is.
_______________________________________
So we remember.
We remember the named and nameless people
who have gone before us,
and the known friends and unknown strangers
who are with us around the globe today.
We ask their prayers, and we pray for them.
The book of Wisdom tells us
“The souls of the just are in the hand of God.”
They remain with us.
Our saints.
No one is rejected.
No one is lost.
We stand together in the kin-dom of God;
we are companions on the journey,
empowered and empowering one another,
on the Way.
We now pray especially for them, with them, and to them:

Litany of Our Saints

Jim Aust
Elizabeth Dwaihy-Barr
Lloyd & Martha Bardus
Cletus & Marie Bingle
Bill & Anne Bingle
Trudy Klear Bogue
All you holy men and women, pray for us!

Lois & Jack Daly
Marshall Desmond
Marshall & Agnes Desmond
Megan Desmond
Bob Donnelly
Bill Eggleston
All you holy men and women, pray for us!

Paul Ewing
Phil & Jane Flis
Kern Geoffrion
Ila Geoffrion
Baby Geoffrion
Susan Geoffrion
Mark Geoffrion
All you holy men and women, pray for us!

Bill Gillespie
The Gillespie Family
Aunt Lottie Gillespie
Marie & Joe Grogan
Susan Grogan
Maureen Grogan
Deceased members of the Haverbusch Family
Sheila Heiman
All you holy men and women, pray for us!
Ken Holland
Ruth Houk
Jake Howell
Conrad & Sarah Hughes
Grace & Paul Joyce
Departed members of the Joyce and Glover Families
All you holy men and women, pray for us!

Michelle Kelsey
Antoine Madden
John & Mary Mandula
Carole Mandula
Margaret McCarty
Ann McCrory
All you holy men and women, pray for us!

Jack Mermer
Heidi Mermer
William & Saloma Molony
Patty Montegno
Colleene Riddle Palicki
Jay Peace
Susan Massari Prendergast
All you holy men and women, pray for us!

Filomena & Felix Rosa
Dutch & Eleanor Stocklen and Members of the Extended Stocklen Family
Dorothy VanAsdale
Diana Wilburn
Maureen Williams
All you holy men and women, pray for us!

Amen.

--
Holy Spirit Catholic Community
at 3535 Executive Parkway (Unity of Toledo)
Saturdays at 4:30 p.m.
Sundays at 5:30 p.m.
www.holyspirittoledo.org

Rev. Dr. Bev Bingle, Pastor
419-727-1774