Month of the Holy Souls (Nov 12)
November 12, 2025
Day 12
A reading from the Book of Ecclesiasticus (14:11-19)
My child, treat yourself well, according to your means,
and present worthy offerings to the Lord.
Remember that death does not tarry,
and the decree of Hades has not been shown to you.
Do good to friends before you die,
and reach out and give to them as much as you can.
Do not deprive yourself of a day’s enjoyment;
do not let your share of desired good pass by you.
Will you not leave the fruit of your labours to another,
and what you acquired by toil to be divided by lot?
Give, and take, and indulge yourself,
because in Hades one cannot look for luxury.
All living beings become old like a garment,
for the decree* from of old is, ‘You must die!’
Like abundant leaves on a spreading tree
that sheds some and puts forth others,
so are the generations of flesh and blood:
one dies and another is born.
Every work decays and ceases to exist,
and the one who made it will pass away with it.
From the writings of Fr. Hans Urs von Balthasar
Secular hope is essentially shattered every moment it is concretely smashed by death. Beyond my death, there is no hope for me in the world's future. Is there any for others? But then again, all others will have their own death before them. But how, if death is now no longer able to destroy hope because its sting has been withdrawn? The power of death, however, has already been fundamentally broken where death, drawn into the infinite consent and agreement of Jesus with his Father’s loving will, itself would be the decisive expression of that loving will. And the power of death is yet more radically broken where, in Jesus' death , the guilt of the world was plumbed to its depths and suffered through in God-forsakeness, where thus the very ground is swept from under the despair, hopelessness, and resignation of the human being in the face of fate.
For this reason, Christians enter upon their path through the world with a completely fresh hope truly drawn from its divine source. And if they stay close to the source and drink from it, they can also open the way to the source for others who thirst, and can even give to others to drink from the source through themselves (Jn 4:14; 7:37ff). They can realize about themselves a model of existence which is both personally and socially freed from the powers of the world and pro¬ vides a foretaste of the risen life far beyond death in all its possible forms: a hidden existence indeed (Col 3:3), yet possessed of such effective force that it vitally permeates the texture of human society….
This does not mean that the human being remains in eternity the captive so to speak of the four walls of his temporal life. Eternity, as it exists in the absolute freedom of God, and in which the creature is to receive a share, is on the contrary the opening of all possibilities, an unimaginable plenitude of dimensions into which free realization can occur. But the costliness of the temporal order does not go lost in it; this remains root and branch whence blossoms and fruit of the eter¬ nal first of all unfold. And in this there is certainly a genuine past of that which was the torment of the birth pangs: "The Lord of hosts . . . will swallow up death forever, and the Lord will wipe away tears from ail faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth" (Is 25:6-8); "for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more" (Rev 21:1); "death shall be ho more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. And he who sat upon the throne said, 'Behold, I make all things new’ " (Rev 21 :4-5). "Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?" (Is 43:18-19).
Musical Selection
A lonely soul has traveled from afar,
probing the future, seeking the past,
toiling arduously, and pursuing a dream.
It knows not whence it comes or it goes,
born in tears and fading in despair.
Though trampled underfoot, it is still holding on.
Your coming puts an end to afflicted life adrift.
I catch a sight of hope, and welcome the light of dawn.
I gaze into the misty distance, I catch a glimpse of Your shape.
That is the radiance, the radiance of Your face.
Yesterday, drifted in foreign land,
but today I’ve found my way back home.
Riddled with wounds, unlike human,
I lament life is a dream.
Your coming puts an end to afflicted life adrift.
I am no longer lost. I’m no longer wandering.
My home I’m now within. Now I see Your white robe.
That is the radiance, the radiance of Your face.
Many cycles of rebirth,
so many years of waiting,
now the Almighty has come.
The lonely soul found its way, and it’s no longer sad.
A dream of a thousand years.
Prayer
God of all consolation,
open our hearts to your word,
so that, listening to it, we may comfort one another,
finding light in time of darkness
and faith in time of doubt.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever. Amen.