Whenever we recite the Apostles’ Creed, we profess our belief in the communion of saints. What are we saying? We are saying that we really believe that we are united in Christ with all our sisters and brothers here on earth and all those who have died. This unity of faith and charity is achieved especially through our participation in the Eucharist.

This coming weekend, Nov. 1 and 2, gives us a splendid opportunity to celebrate this truth of our faith. As happens only every five or six years, this weekend we will observe the feast of All Saints Day on Saturday and the commemoration of All Souls on Sunday. For a number of years now the first Sunday in November has been designated as “Cemetery Sunday.” Because Cemetery Sunday this year falls on All Souls Day, Nov. 2, we have a splendid opportunity to mark this day of prayer and remembrance by visiting one of our most sacred places, a Catholic cemetery. Catholic cemeteries are holy ground. They remind us that the dead are still present among us. These places help us remember our loved ones and remind us to pray for them.

Visiting cemeteries was a common practice in the days of my youth. Most of my relatives are buried in Resurrection Cemetery in a small community just outside Chicago. There my grandparents, parents, many aunts and uncles, cousins and friends await the sound of the angel’s trumpet on the last day. My mom and dad would regularly bring us there to help us become better acquainted with our deceased relatives, to adorn their gravesites and to pray for their eternal repose. Nowadays parents are hesitant to discuss death with their children or to bring them to a funeral. This is a mistake. Christians do not fear death. It is our gateway to that everlasting reunion of all God’s saints in everlasting life.

Here in the Archdiocese of Portland we have three archdiocesan Catholic cemeteries: Gethsemani on Portland’s east side, Mount Calvary Cemetery on Portland’s west side and Mount Calvary Cemetery in Eugene. There are many parish cemeteries as well which are located on church grounds. They have long been a tradition in our church, particularly in rural areas.

Each year our Catholic cemeteries host a Mass in November to remember the faithful departed. On that occasion we remember in particular members of our Catholic community who passed away during the previous year. This year that Mass will be celebrated at 2 p.m., on Friday, Nov. 7, in the indoor mausoleum of Portland’s Mount Calvary Cemetery. Throughout the month of November we Catholics remember all our faithful departed with gratitude for the gifts of life and faith which are now ours because of them.

If you have a chance to visit Portland’s Mount Calvary Cemetery in November, you won’t want to miss the new replica of the world-famous Celtic cross from the Irish Monastery of Clonmachnoise. This cross was commissioned by the Ancient Order of Hibernians. It will be dedicated in December. The cross stands fourteen feet tall and weighs five tons. It can be found on the hillside overlooking the corner of Skyline and Burnside.

There are burial practices among Christians that have evolved over the centuries which make every effort to reflect the appropriate dignity with which a human body is to be treated. After all, it is that body, the amazing result of God’s creative goodness, which accompanies us all on the road to glory. In the earliest days of Christianity the dead were always considered a part of the household of the living. Both the living and the dead are described as “saints.” Theirs was a world of mutual love. The living loved, cared and prayed for the dead. The dead were asked to help the living.

When I was a youngster the church was described for us in three distinct groups: the church militant (the living), the church suffering (those being purified in purgatory) and the church triumphant (those forever with God). Once baptized, all belong to Christ. “Sanctity” was based on their living and loving relationship with God. Christian cemeteries, like the catacombs we find around Rome, became common as an expression of our abiding care for the dead.

This relationship between the living and the dead was important to the early Christians. In early times the church did oppose cremation. Opposition to cremation became commonplace around 400 A.D. but its revival occurred in Europe during the 19th century. Eventually in 1963 the church again permitted cremation as long as it wasn’t contrary to Catholic teaching. Unfortunately many who choose cremation over burial do so because they have no belief in the afterlife. Burial practices have varied over the centuries. The church herself at different times and in different places has encouraged a variety of such practices. But it always did so from the perspective of faith in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.

As we celebrate the feasts of All Saints and All Souls this year and also observe Cemetery Sunday, our thoughts and prayers turn to our beloved dead. They are the ones on whose shoulders we stand as members of the human family and God’s holy people. Where they are we some day hope to be. This is not our lasting home. Throughout the month of November in Catholic churches the world over we shall be praying with and for the deceased as they pray with and for us.

Let me take this opportunity to encourage you to visit a cemetery near your home this Cemetery Sunday, 2008. We are observing a jubilee year in honor of St. Paul at the present time. It was St. Paul who offered the basis for our belief in the communion of saints when he compared Christians to a single body in his First Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 12. This belief is further enhanced by the reference in the Letter to the Hebrews to the “cloud of witnesses” which surrounds us on our journey of faith through this life.

Please join me in observing Catholic Cemetery Sunday this weekend of November 1 and 2. Take the time to consider your own funeral and burial plans. You will be doing yourself and your survivors a favor. But most of all, pray for all our beloved dead. With Christians everywhere throughout the month of November we ask the Lord to give them the joy and the peace that can only be found in His everlasting embrace.