Commentary on the Gospel for November 2, 2024

noviembre 2, 2024

Great feast!

Today is a day to visit cemeteries, to remember loved ones, to pray for them… it seems to be a sad day par excellence. In Mexico, the Day of the Dead is a day of great celebration. It was expressed in the movie Coco a few years ago, in all its color and celebration. However, the movie does not do justice to the basis of the celebration, because it puts life into the memory that the living have of them. Once they are forgotten, they die altogether. This is where it makes a big mistake. Life does not depend on memory, but on the hands of God, where the souls of the righteous are, as the reading from the Book of Wisdom says. Only fools think otherwise.

It is a great feast because it is precisely the celebration of being in God’s hands and the attainment of eternal life. It is the fulfillment of God’s will: that everyone who believes in Him will be saved and have eternal life. Hope is not based on the memory that some may have of those who once lived on this earth. It is based on the reality of the memory of God, who has reconciled us to Christ through His blood. A reconciliation that we receive in Baptism. This hope does not disappoint. God’s will is not variable, because love cannot change its intentions. It would not be God.

«Those who trust in the Lord will understand the truth, and those who are faithful to his love will remain by his side, because God loves his chosen ones and cares for them. For our part, it is necessary to remain, to be faithful, to accept God’s justice in order to be just, to be justified, to keep hope alive… That is, not to be so foolish as to think that death is final. We have proof. Hope does not disappoint.

That is why today is a great day of celebration. The promise is sure and God is always faithful.

Carmen Aguinaco