Saints and Souls: Held in the Embrace of Infinite Love (John 6:37–40)

“Whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.” (John 6:37)

In these few words, Jesus reveals the heart of God, a heart that never excludes, never withholds, and never gives up on anyone. God’s love is not based on merit but on mercy. Whether saint or sinner, all are drawn into this vast embrace of compassion. The same love that formed the saints also transforms sinners, as it did St. Augustine, who moved from restless wandering to deep belonging. Richard Rohr reminds us that All Saints and All Souls are not two separate celebrations but two movements of the same divine embrace. The saints reveal what God’s grace can make of us, while the souls remind us of our shared humanity, our unfinished journey. The saints show us the light of transformation; the souls remind us that the journey continues through mercy. Both live within the circle of God’s endless compassion. 

Jesus’ words today dissolve every boundary we create between worthy and unworthy, holy and sinful, alive and departed. In God’s heart, there is only belonging. Rohr says that “God holds everything together in love, even our failures and wounds.” When we allow ourselves to be held by this love, forgiveness ceases to be an event and becomes a way of seeing.

For those of us who are in the agony of losing our loved ones, let us remember that they are not gone, but have gone ahead into the fullness of God’s embrace. We are one with them in the mystery of love and life. As Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh wrote, “When we touch one thing with deep awareness, we touch everything.” When we touch the love of God, we touch the communion of saints and souls, those who walked before us and on whose shoulders we stand. Love connects what death cannot divide. 

All Saints and All Souls invite us to stand humbly in this truth: that holiness is participation in divine love. We are all being gathered by the Father, shaped by mercy, and raised to life in Christ. So today, as we remember those who have gone before us, radiant saints and struggling souls alike, we hear again Jesus’ promise: “This is the will of my Father… that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me.” In that promise lies our hope: no one is lost, no one is cast out, all are held eternally in Love.

 - Lilly Pushpam PBVM