I am advised how important it is to be personal in my reflections, and quite right too. I can write endlessly about things that belong to the head, as I have access to the rich treasury of the Church’s history, teaching and spirituality, as we all do. Of course, there is a proper and important place for this as our ‘faith continues to seek understanding’, as St Anselm would say.

However, it is the heart that yearns for that which will inspire us in times of doubt, guide us through life in surprisingly new ways and lead us to expressions of love and hope that the mind may find difficult to comprehend.

As I begin this reflection for November, I will try to speak from the heart. A few days ago, I received news of the death of someone I worked with closely whilst I was on mission in South Africa. When I arrived, he helped me learn the local language, introduced me to the community in the townships, gave enormous assistance to our project of building a church in one of the townships and was very active in distributing food to the very poor and elderly.

He was a man of faith, loyal to the Church and faithful to the call of the Gospel to serve those in need. I left South Africa twenty years ago, but we stayed in touch. Unfortunately, earlier this year he developed cancer, which spread rapidly and mercilessly through his body. His name was Godwill and sadly he was only 51 when he died.

As we all know, death is the only thing we cannot avoid, and November is the traditional time to pay special attention to those who have passed from this life to the next. Our prayers and Masses offer them spiritual support and comfort us when dealing with loss. Praying for the dead actually gives us hope because it reminds us that, for us who follow the Master, at death life is not ended but changed.

When he was close to death, Cardinal Hume wrote a wonderful reflection (which took me some time to find among my pile of prayer cards). These words of his still inspire me:

‘First thoughts of death are normally ones of fear and dread. It is partly having to face the unknown. On a bad day there is that common fear which tells us that there is no future, only a blank, nothing. But there is another voice that speaks within us. Some instinct, a positive and optimistic one, speaks of hope leading to life after death. Then faith takes over and with triumph declares “It is so”. The vision of God is that for which we are made. To see Him as He is, face to face, that is the moment of ecstasy, the ever present “now” of total happiness. I have no fear of death.’

November is a time of mixed emotions too, as we remember our deceased loved ones and indeed those without anyone to pray for them. The loss of a loved one usually creates a gap that cannot be filled emotionally, yet our prayers express the spiritual connection we still have with them. They are prayers of hope based not just on the promise of Jesus Christ that we will enjoy life eternal, but on his own conquest of death in his Resurrection.

St Paul, in one of my favourite passages, states very clearly:

‘For, if the dead are not raised, neither is Christ; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is pointless, and you are still in your sins. If our hope in Christ has been for this life only, we are of all people the most pitiable.’ (1 Corinthians 15:16-19)

Our mission in this world is to witness to the life that God has given us through, with and in the Risen Christ. Our message to the world and our hope for all of humanity is that we live our lives together in the peace and harmony God offers us in His Kingdom, with the sure hope that life does not end with death but continues in a way that we cannot comprehend, leading us to be reunited with those who have gone before us.

Please do send me the names of those you would like us to remember in prayer during Mass here in the Missio chapel throughout this month.

Eternal rest grant to them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them and may they rest in peace and rise in glory. Amen.

Yours in the Risen Christ,
Fr Anthony