The Feast of All Saints

Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion in the mystical body of your Son Jesus Christ:  Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you.....

                                                              The Book of Common Prayer, p. 245

The Collect for All Saints' Sunday reminds us of the mystery of life and death in a profound way.  First it describes all those who have gone on before us as being somehow knit together.  Think about that for a minute: your great grandmother and my great grandmother. And all those who died in the Holocaust and all the children who have died in childbirth or in utero: all knit together into one holy and mystical body called the Communion of Saints. Wow!

 And in this prayer, we ask God for the grace to follow them; we ask God to bring us in death into a place where the joys are "ineffable."  I had to look it up. Ineffable means "incapable of being expressed in words," so what we are asking God to do is to bring us into a place so filled with joy that words cannot describe it. 

 In a world where death is often associated with despair, disease, anger, or tragedy, God promises something different. God promises us a place where the joys areineffable; a place where the sting of death is transformed into                                                                               something of indescribable joy.

All Saints' Sunday, then, becomes a time where we are offered a glimpse into that mystery, a glimpse through the thin veil into the ineffable joys that God has promised us. As we remember those we love who have gone on before us, we remember, too, that God has a place for us in that Kingdom.