There is a popular insurance company whose TV commercial says: “You are in good hands with________.” Having this company as an insurance agency is supposed to give us a sense of security that all is well as long as we remain in their hands.
Today we celebrate the feast day of souls who are in the hands of God, right now. Insurance companies can protect our finances to a degree, and if we stop paying a premium to them, they will cut off ties with us. When we are in God’s hands, however, our protection goes far beyond the financial and beyond even death.
The first reading proclaims (Wisdom 3:1-9),
“The souls of the just are in the hands of God, and no torment shall touch them. They seemed in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction…But they are at peace.”
Those who turned their lives over to God in this life made the wisest of all choices. Though the underwent suffering in this life and continue to be purified in Purgatory, the torment of hell will not touch them. Their deepest question has been answered forever. They are at peace.
“Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worthy of himself. As gold in the furnace, he proved them and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself.”
Chastisement and purification are necessary to make someone capable of entering into the presence of God. The old self that clings to the things of this world dies little by little, so that the new self may be ready to enter into glory when called by God. Dying in the waters of Baptism, we were placed in the hands of God as an ongoing sacrificial offering. They souls of the just are in their final stage of purification.
In the second reading (Romans 5:5-11) St. Paul reminds us of what Jesus did for us.
“How much more then, since we are not justified by his Blood, will we be saved through him from wrath. Indeed, if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God, through the death of his Son, how much more, once reconciled, will we be saved by his life.”
Sin put us at a distance from God. The choice of Adam and Eve removed themselves from the safe hands of God. Jesus, by the shedding of his blood, re-opened the way to union with God. He defeated sin and opened a way for us into God’s hands. In accepting Jesus into our heart we begin to be reconciled with God.
Jesus proclaimed the ultimate promise for those who believe in him (John 6:37-40).
“For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day.”
Eternal life is our goal and being raised from the dead is our hope. For those who believe in him, Jesus offers the greatest of promises—eternal life and resurrection of our bodies.
Today is a feast of hope. We are given perspective on our present sufferings and reminded what God has prepared for those who love him. In uniting ourselves, today, with the “Church suffering” our hope reminds us that our present struggles will one day yield to the day of glory that they know with total certainty awaits them.
“Come, you who are blessed by my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34).
