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Here is a little trivia for you.

As I looked up, I discovered that the estimated number of people who have ever lived on earth is about 110 billion. As sociologies suggest that we can comfortably maintain around 150 social relationships, 110 billion is an incredibly large number. Also modern science tells us that first modern human appeared around 300,000 years ago. As we live about 80-100 years, and 300,000 years is something we cannot easily speculate. Then what happed to so many people who existed before us during such a long time? Where are those 110 billion people who breathed here on earth?

It is not just Christians who believe that there is something more even after death. So many other religions also came up with a certain idea regarding what will happen after death. Or even before an institutional religion was born, Indigenous people, going further to primitive societies,

people developed a form of rites for the dead. These rituals served to mourn the loss and remember the person. But at the same time, they were designed for the diseased to continue their journey after death. Though the forms vary across regions and cultures, there is a common thread. People have used their intuition and imagination to picture the world after death.

In a way, it is strange because existence after death is not something we can detect with our senses. Although there are rare cases where more spiritually sensitive people communicate with the deceased, or some people have an experience of seeing a ghost. People generally do not have means to perceive the dead or the world they belong. Then why do human beings’ sense something that exists beyond physical life? Is it merely a wishful thinking of those left behind, or a projection of our longing?

As I look back my life, I am convinced that there must be something beyond death, not just fantasy or wish. Not because I saw someone dead, or I found evidence that can prove life after death,

But because I remembered various occasions where I saw a glimpse of what cannot be confined or destroyed by time and space. I remember the first time I held my newborn nephew and how wonder flooded into my heart. I remember my grand parents’ faces breaking into full bloomed smiles whenever I went to visit them. I remember the feeling of my Mom holding me tight to warm me up as I came back from playing in the winter cold. I remember the overwhelming humility as I gaze up countless stars brightening the night sky. I remember marveling at a small wildflower blooming, bravely and beautifully, in the crack of bare rocks defying a world’s indifference. I remember how small I am, but still part of it as I belong standing at the ocean’s edge or at the top of the mountain. I remember the first time I listened to Bach’s Goldberg variation, the infinite repetition and delicate variation inviting me to dwell in beauty. Life seems sometimes continuation of mundane and ordinary routines, heavily burdened with duties and challenges. And yet, once in a while, like the sun appears through the scattered cloud. We sense something, something deeply good, something inexplicably beautiful, something profoundly true. In those luminous moments, without any explanation, we know that there is an existence beyond our limited perception.

There is a Being who created and governs this intricately designed world. There is connection that holds every single being together that our human understanding cannot fully capture. As if a fish only allowed to live under the water, happened to have a chance to see the vastness of the sea outside the water. We all have moments that we see the world we belong to; we see the connectedness we are part of, we see the beauty of what God is doing, and what we human beings can do.

As we are in that moment, we move out of chronological time, a measured, mechanical sequence of events. We touch the eschatological time, where the whole eternity and single moment coexist. Then we know life here is not a random happening.

And our experience in those moments tells us, we are on a journey that continues beyond our time on earth. Our experience here is just a part of something more whole, more genuine, more beautiful.

In that regard, in the most crystal-clear way, Jesus showed the mystery of God and human persons.

He himself became a window for everyone who encountered him, so that they could peek into that Kingdom of God, existing already among them, but far reaching into the eternity. He himself became a door for everyone whose heart he touched, so that they will enter into a way to live as God willed for them and continue to live even after death as they found God in themselves.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us Whoever comes to me, I will never drive away. I will not lose anyone since that is the Father’s will. Yes, it implies that Jesus is our savior and redeemer who save us from our sins and bring us to the eternal Kingdom of God. But I think salvation is not something we can obtain as if we get a ticket to enter a concert or fair. For me, salvation is entering into a new relationship, being transformed in that new relationship. As we are truly found by Jesus, we find Jesus as well. Then we stand with Jesus, see with Jesus, move with Jesus, and we know God as Jesus did. And no longer we are obsessed with things that we temporarily own here on earth, and we begin to cherish and pursue things that belong in eternity.

Today, on all souls day, we remember all who passed away. As someone asks what happens after death, more traditional way to answer would be God would judge us based on the life we lived. However, personally I would not want to see our life is a test to pass or see God as a heartless judge. Life seems harsh, the powerful ones are infested with greed, breaking the world with violence, but we cannot deny there is Jesus moment for us all where we see the bare face of God, God’s creation, and are restored into who we truly are. Then, we will know death is not the end. We will know all God created are living in God’s love. We will know we are never forgotten, never lost, never mere numbers in the grand sweep of time. Each soul, each fleeting life, is woven into the vast tapestry of God’s creation. The 110 billion who have come before, all the faces and the names do not vanish into a void or shadow.

Let us pray: “Gracious God,
You hold all generations, past, present, and yet to come. Gather to yourself all who have gone before us. Strengthen those who grieve, comfort the lonely, and give us hope that transcends all endings. Grant us glimpses of your eternal light in the beauty and struggle of our daily lives. May we walk in trust, belong in love, and someday rest in your everlasting peace.
Through Jesus Christ, the Lord of all.
Amen.

Father James