Bishop Glen John Provost, D.D., M.A
Bishop of Lake Charles
All Souls Day Mass
Thursday, November 2, 2023
Consolata Cemetery
Lake Charles, Louisiana
All Souls 2023 (With apologies to Thomas Gray)
"Without me you can do nothing." John 15:5
The sun sets, and we make our way through the "solemn stillness" of a chilly night to the land of our ancestors called Consolata. Here the "forefathers of the hamlet sleep" and we keep vigil in the hope of Resurrected life.
Who were they, those who sleep here? You knew them well. The harvest yielded to their sickle. They shared the joys of home, and they, like all of us, sensed an obscure destiny. They were busy housewives, ambitious men of business, and some accomplished as the world would define it. Some returned to their Lord young and others after a long life of toil without alloy, sadness and joy all melted into one, sometimes indistinguishable.
"You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you" {John 15:3). These words of our Lord prompt us to reflect on what that pruning means, for me, for you, or for them. Pruning cuts away and moves us to consider how through life there is greater loss than gain. This pruning might imply sadness at what might have been. Something missing might have "repressed their noble rage," something unattained "froze the genial current of the soul." We will never know, and yet perhaps we do.
The word that prunes is the word that cuts, and what is left bears more fruit. This is the most difficult lesson of all. Poor humans, we have difficulty letting go, but letting go we must. To us all death comes. And when it does, it finds us either waiting, a healthy branch, united to the vine, or separated from it, thrown into the kiln. This belief should not depress us but rather prompt us to pray for ourselves and for them who have gone on before us.
So, we are filled with hope. We must always strive to remain one with the vine, all the branches in their varying shapes and lengths. Apart from Him we can do nothing. We die. But united to Him we live.
Our visit this evening is a reassurance, a reminder. God exists, He loves us, and our departed live. God wishes us to be united with Him forever. May it be so for our faithful departed. And while we recall-the multitude of persons whose mortal remains lie here, let us recall one branch alone. "large was his bounty and his soul sincere,/ Heaven did a recompense as largely send:/ He gave to Misery all he had, a tear,/ He gained from Heaven ('twas all he wished) a friend."
May those who rest here come to the judgment united to the Lord as a living branch, pruned and strengthened, to enjoy the Beatific Vision. May the· "vine grower" see in them the sap of life flowing into the harvest of eternal life. Eternal Life grant unto them, 0 Lord. And let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.