“All Saints” brings to the fore – different feelings and different emotions for differing people…

I love “All Saints Day/Sunday” – it is so much more than our namesake. There is both anguish and comfort to be found in this weekend. Both, stand, side-by-side.

I have always taken comfort in the fact that we are surrounded by a “great cloud of witnesses.” We are indeed surrounded. They are indeed with us.

It really is a “two edged sword.”

All Saints is a day of “sadness,” “heartache,” “malaise,” “foreboding,” “melancholy” and “despondency.”

“Angst” is a good word. Feelings are raw. There are things going on “under the surface” like “lament,” “pining” and a “good-old-fashioned-case-of- the- blues.”

There is a certain “uneasiness” an “anticipation.”

Time does help. But you can seemingly never tell that to anyone, because they do not believe you…

Time does heal…eventually…but unfortunately the vast majority of us wants “healing” immediately. We want it now. We want it in an instant of time. We want it on our time line. We want it when we say so…

Time does make a difference. But time, takes time, it doesn’t happen overnight. It is a process.

Things change slowly over time, never on our time schedule, never when we would wish.

It is not a stretch to say that “All Saints Day” hurts…it probably always has…

There is a void that cannot or will not be filled…an emptiness, a vacuum. People are routinely missed! That does not go away. We grieve “the loss” in our own lives… That’s where it is felt, that is where it manifests itself. It can be very personal and very individual. It is my experience, alone.

But remember, I said it was a double edged sword that keeps us held … at bay. There is another side. A much more “comforting side.”

You know this year…we are talking about a mother, and another mother, a son and a father, a husband and a father. We are talking about a “dad” who was always there. We are talking about a husband and a father who died way too young. We are talking about friends…and acquaintances. Cousins, relatives, family, friends…
Another husband died, who happened to die also too young…and then, a husband of over 50 years and a grandfather and then, an only son whom a mother watched suffer greatly.

None of it was easy. None of it is fun.

And of course it makes a huge difference if it was your Mother or Your Father or Your Husband…

The relationship is everything.
These are not just names read in a liturgy. They were family members loved ones, important people. People held dear.

It is more than just personal.
No one wants “anyone” to suffer…ever!!!!

No one wants anyone to be hurt or to be hurting. No wishes confusion, anxiety and terror on anyone.

We hate to say it, we hate to admit it, but sometimes there is a relief that comes… There is grace. There is a comfort. None of this is easy, nor was any of it meant to be easy!

The blessed saints we call them, “sanctus” or the “holy ones.”

People set apart. People destined for more and better…people set free…and would you hold them back? Or, would you want to be held back?

I doubt it.

They have been set free for eternity. Set free by God. Set free to be with God…

There is no better place to be than in the hands of God…or with God…forever…

A mom
A mother
A dad
A wife
A husband
A father
A son

But for some reason our lives have intersected, they have crossed, we have journeyed together…

And, it never matters the duration. Our lives have touched in some kind of meaningful way…and we are the better for it.

We have been touched by a saint of the most high God. And we for our parts, are to be honored. We are privileged. God has looked with favor on his people. And we are blessed.

May today with all of its emotions and feelings be a blessing for you. I pray it is so!

Amen.