UST Vice Rector for Religious Affairs Fr. Pablo Tiong, O.P. on All Souls’ Day said Filipinos should mark the “Undas” with joy as they commemorate the souls of their departed loved ones.
In his homily during the Santisimo Rosario Parish’s Mass for departed Thomasians on Wednesday, Tiong said All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day are “days of glory, they’re days of joy, and hope.”
While death might seem like the “ultimate and definitive separation” of people from their loved ones, it has become, in a sense, the “ultimate connection” to God’s loving providence, he said.
“[O]ur prayer relationship with those who have gone ahead of us and the grace of God is not cut off—that is why we can pray for the souls in purgatory and why all of those who are now in the Kingdom of God can pray for us,” Tiong said.
The vice rector also said the celebration of Halloween should not overshadow the Christian way of celebrating these “holy days.”
“In a way, Halloween may have a Christian origin and meaning, but the way it is celebrated in some other quarters of society is not really very connected anymore to the Christian meaning of Communion of Saints,” he said.
The UST Santisimo Rosario Parish will hold another Mass for deceased Thomasians on Nov. 8.
Classes and office work in the University will resume on Nov. 4, after the Undas break. Niña Angelica M. Rodriguez
