Br. Lain Wilson

All Souls: All the Faithful Departed

Wisdom 3:1-9

A week and a half ago, I ran the Marine Corps Marathon, in Washington, DC. I anticipated the physical exhaustion, but didn’t expect the emotional exhaustion. No small part of that came at mile 12, the “wear blue mile.” Every few strides, a pair of sandwich boards featured a fallen serviceman or -woman. Every few strides, on and on: faces, names, ages – a litany of the dead.

As I ran that mile, I tried to say their names to myself, to make my running through this gauntlet, in some measure, my prayer for them. I couldn’t help but think ahead to a similar litany we’ll experience this evening, as we recite the names of our own departed.

Today is the feast of All Souls, when we remember all those whom we love but see no longer – parents and children, friends and mentors, those long departed and those recently lost. We remember them with the faith, the hope, the expectation that, though gone from our sight, they are not lost in the eyes of God. “The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God” (Wisdom of Solomon 3:1).

Our first reading, from the Wisdom of Solomon, includes an evocative phrase that always catches my attention: “In the time of their visitation they will shine forth, and will run like sparks through the stubble” (3:7). The image here is common in Jewish apocalyptic, referring to the brilliance of the righteous when they will judge the nations.

If this image points to a truth of God’s future, it also reveals a reality of our own present – a real way that those whom we love and see no longer are present to us now. The first-century-CE Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria extends this image, in a discussion of the edifying effect of virtue: “the smallest spark of virtue, when it beams up, being wakened into life by good hopes, gives light to what has previously been dim-sighted and blind, and causes what has been withered to shoot up again, and whatever is barren and unproductive it transforms and brings to abundance of prolific power.”[1]

Our departed, who will shine forth like stars in God’s future, in our present run like sparks through our lives. Their faithful example – their ways of loving us, their commitment and courage, their achievements and, yes, their failures – all these enlighten us, build us up, kindle our own spark so that our own lives and witnesses might shine in the world.

I experienced my own version of this during the race. As I hit a wall at mile 22, I found myself remembering those names and faces from earlier, replaying them in my mind, feeling myself surrounded and pushed forward by the strength of their example, those who gave all for a cause they felt to be true and right. I didn’t know any of those faces or recognize any of their names, but I still felt myself kindled by their example – kindled, empowered, propelled.

On this feast of All Souls, what empowerment do you need today, at this stage of your own earthly race? How might your own spark be kindled by the example of your own beloved departed? How might your life shine forth now?

Amen.

[1] Philo of Alexandria, On the Migration of Abraham, 123, available online at P. Kirby, “Early Jewish Writings,” https://www.earlyjewishwritings.com/text/philo/book16.html (accessed November 4, 2025).