The significance of All Saints’ and All Souls’ Day

It was All Saints’ Day yesterday and All Souls’ Day today and whether the atheists within our midst like it or not, the belief of life after death has become part and parcel of our Christian culture, just as the family unit is very important to our Filipino culture. This is why for the entire weekend, Filipino families go back by the millions to their home provinces to honor their dearly departed, and while at the same time have a reunion with those who are still living. What a very nice tradition that we Filipinos should be proud to have and we should always treasure it.

This tradition goes all the way back to the first century, where there were so may Christian martyrs who died in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, but they were too numerous to be recorded and to be later beatified by the Catholic Church, so a day of remembrance was instituted to remember those who died for Christ that even today, we celebrate these martyrs for Saints who are known and unknown.

San Lorenzo Ruiz, our first Filipino Saint and San Pedro Calungsod for many centuries remained among those unknown saints until the Vatican learned about their martyrdom and today we have two Filipino Saints we can pray to and intercede for us.

The feast of All Saints and All Souls Day started in the 4th century and celebrated first in Antioch, where St. Ephrem the Syrian mentioned it in his sermon in the year 373 AD. The final date of Nov. 1 was instituted in the time of Pope Gregory III (731-741) when he consecrated a chapel to all the martyrs in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and ordered its annual celebration. While it was first ordered only for the Diocese of Rome, Pope Gregory IV (827-844) extended the holding of this feast to the entire Catholic Church.

Alas, Catholics today give more importance to celebrating Halloween than All Saints and All Souls Day, but at least millions of Filipinos still continue to mourn their friends and family who have gone ahead of us and to remember the times when they were still alive… it is equally important for us to remember too that our dearly departed are not really dead. We may have their remains in our family plots… but we must pray for their souls who are either in purgatory or in heaven… and we pray that they are not in hell because if they are there, then we can no longer do anything for them.

Unfortunately the Filipino family unit is under threat today in that foreign inspired Reproductive Health (RH) Law that unbeknownst to most people it seeks to destroy families through a contraceptive culture… the same kind of culture that is prevalent in the United States and Europe, which is why their populations are in serious decline and families disintegrating. So why has this country approved the RH bill despite the dire consequences to the Filipino family? Only the Aquino regime is answerable to this.

Last Oct. 15, Cebu and Bohol suffered a 7.2 magnitude earthquake, the biggest earthquake that we experienced in our recorded history… which destroyed a great number of our old churches. In fact, the social networking sites were busy asking the question, “Why did God allow his churches to be destroyed by that earthquake? What kind of message was God telling us about this unexpected natural disaster?

My good friend, Dr. Rene Bullecer of Human Life International (HLI) emailed me asking the question, “Which of the three Congressional Districts in Bohol suffered the most during that Oct.15 earthquake?” At this point, I need to check our and validate this query… whether this disaster is related to the passage of the RH bill?

But let me tell you this, Cebu and Bohol are still lucky that as of last count, there were only a total 215 people who died because of the earthquake and an initial assessment of P2.2 billion in infrastructure damage. In other countries a 7.2 magnitude earthquake would have caused thousands of casualties. So despite all this we can still count ourselves lucky.

I left Cebu for Israel two-days after the earthquake and my only way to get information on what was happening in Cebu or in Bohol was through my Facebook account and indeed, I’m proud to report that Boholanos could always count on the Cebuanos’ indomitable spirit… where without being told by any political or spiritual leader, Cebuanos went out of their way to bring relief goods to the earthquake hit areas, especially those places in Bohol like in the town of Loon or Calape that were severed from the main highway to Tagbilaran. So they were resupplied through Cebu Province.

All Rotarians not just from Metro Cebu, but as far as Leyte, and Mindanao went out of their way to give various relief goods with Rotarians personally delivering them to the quake victims. So let me proudly say that I’m a proud Rotarian and a Cebuano! You can always count on us!

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