Sunday’s readings address souls. The Book of Wisdom talks of “the souls” who suffer because “God tried them and found them worthy of himself. As gold in the furnace, he proved them, and as sacrificial offerings he took them.” Paul’s Letter to the Romans talks of all souls as suffering “in slavery to sin” and “Christ died for us,” sacrificing himself for us sinners. Conversely, Jesus talks of souls who “will have eternal life.”
U.S. media culture likes to feed its viewers strong personalities. Personalities provide superficial drama, meaning they lack substance in favor of spectacle. Personalities seemingly satisfy us with likes and dislikes, forceful emotions, opinions thoughtlessly expressed, multiple options and multiple choices, as well as moods and whims leaving us all feeling stuffed but not nourished. Personalities, their superficialities, and the spectacles that result can have us hungering for people of character, their substance, and the common good we all need. Unfortunately, and distressingly so, elite corporate owners of media feed us the worst of personalities, such as those who lie, constantly – like the entire MAGA machine, especially about health care. Elites feed us untruths – like poverty being the result of immigrants taking our jobs. Elite corporate owners of media feed us dishonest images – like war as caused by dark-skinned foreigners who are violating our neighborhoods and our nation. Often, without our realizing it, we are continuing in the scripture role of being “sacrificial offerings, consumed by the master class. They prepare us for the normal sacrifice that is our unhealthy, poverty-laced, violent lives which they then lie about as being caused by other people they also prepare to be sacrificed in unhealthy, poverty-laced, violent lives. Pushing ourselves away from the table of sacrifice prepared for us, we discover the truth is ever so lacking in drama, ever so absent of spectacle, ever so boring. The master class targets us with calculated duplicity. Every sacrifice of health, work, and peace made by the average person in the U.S., especially the average white man claiming grievance, has been the result of intentional policy decisions made in the cool comfort of corporate boardrooms. Our voluntary fast from personalities and their false superficialities and spectacles happens when we live deeply, as the souls Jesus speaks of in the Gospel. We need soul food and thus external likes and dislikes shift to internal integrity enabling freedom, forceful emotions shift to thoughtfully expressed feelings, opinions shift to facts, lots of options shift to wise decisions about them, and shallow moods and whims shift to principles and virtues. We shift from living from the outside in and we start living from the inside out. We live not in the shadow of this culture’s elite personalities but rather we are nurtured in the ingredients of our moral core. We are like a jeweler cutting away dull edges and unremarkable qualities of a rough diamond to shape our more brilliant character. We illuminate our soul. We live in full interaction with the light, as a prism, a rainbow of qualities that highlight our humanity and we blend with the humanity of others. As our African American friends have long known, such living is the soul food that nourishes the depth of us. In the face of elitists wanting us to sacrifice our lives to them, we need daily substance of seasoning and spice that make our communities robust. We are artists in nourishing our Souls, and our Souls “will have eternal life.”
“All Souls’ Day… if two have been together witnessing the variousness of light, and the same two in November enter the year’s night… Next moment – we well know… what the small day cannot hold must spill into eternity.” (All Souls’ Day – Frances Bellerby)
Prayer: Beautiful Spirit, help us live most deeply, from the inside out.
Question: Who are the people and what are the experiences that nourish my soul?
November 2, 2025 Gospel Feast of All Souls