all souls

Yesterday, at a Mass celebrating the Solemnity of All Saints, the priest's homily was about how All Saints was like Thanksgiving; we're all gathered around a table for a feast—our chatty aunt, our boisterous grandpa, our crazy grandma who drinks a little too much. And all those relatives who have died—our aunts and uncles, our grandmas and grandpas, some of our siblings, and maybe children—are saints. The feast is to celebrate all of them, not 'big name' saints like Augustine, Aquinas, and Clare.

I was willing to give the priest the benefit of the doubt when he said this, because he could mean that all those who have passed away and are now in Heaven are saints... but then he said further: "We're all more good than bad," and proceeded to talk about how he loves eulogies in funeral liturgies (which he says became a norm after Vatican II) because they show all the good things people did in life. He also said he's glad priests don't wear black for funerals anymore (they can, of course, but very few do), because black is so depressing. Priests wear white because they celebrate the resurrection of the dead!