Sermon:
Original Manuscript:
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When you look at November 2 in the calendar for The Book of Common Prayer, you will notice that 1) the title of the day is not in bold, so it is not a major feast and 2) the title for the day is the “Commemoration of All Faithful Departed”.
November 2 has not been a day celebrated within the Anglican Tradition until much recently. Before the Reformation, a day known as All Souls’ was celebrated then. This day was not connected to All Saints’, but rather in contrast. The saints were considered to be those who were known to be in Heaven. The souls were those considered to be in Purgatory.
The Reformers rightfully, at least in this case, did away with this day in order to rightly do away with this concept of Purgatory. Purgatory doesn’t exist. Its very idea is direct conflict with the understanding of Grace. We can do nothing on our own, in this life or the next, to purge ourselves from our sins. Only Jesus can do that. Only Jesus has done that through the gift and freedom of Grace, freely given to all by no work of our own.
Yet with all the death and destruction seen in the last century, the Prayer Book committee deemed it necessary to have a day to remember our dead. While we couldn’t bring back All Souls’ Day and with it the falsity of Purgatory, we could set aside a day to honor our beloved dead.
The beginning of November marks one of the most important days of the church. We begin with All Saints’ Day. This is the day we remember all of the saints, known and unknown, exceptional and ordinary, dead and living. It is one of the days set aside to baptize new Saints into the Body of Christ even. The Commemoration of All Faithful Departed is merely an extension of that in our Episcopal understanding. It extends our celebration and remembrance of the Saints further as we recall those Saints we love who have gone before us, who we are assured to see once again in God’s Heavenly Kingdom through the Grace and Love of our Lord Jesus Christ.