By John Rohlf
The Message assistant editor
The annual All Souls Day Mass of the Resurrection was held Nov. 3 at St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery.
Father Eugene Schroeder, pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Vanderburgh County, celebrated the Mass in the cemetery’s mausoleum. The Mass featured a remembrance of those who died. Nearly 300 names of individuals who were buried at St. Joseph Cemetery over the past year were read during the gathering rite.
During his homily, Father Schroeder noted the crowd in attendance was “a decidedly seasoned group of people.” He believes we have become a little insulated from death.
“When death comes, we always think about it as the enemy,” Father Schroeder said. “Something that’s going to do us harm. But what we remind ourselves is that life and death are two sides of the same coin. It’s like the cycle of living and dying that’s around us all the time. That does not make it easier when someone dies.”
Father Schroeder said people have an impact on our lives when we give ourselves to them and become vulnerable to them. When we do this, it opens up a whole world to us of loving and being loved, he said.
Father Schroeder said when we give ourselves to someone and grieve their loss, the temptation is to not go through that again. He said for those that we love, we are at some point going to encounter death because no one lives forever.
“When that happens, we know what we pray is that we can be open to all that the life that loving somebody can bring to us,” Father Schroeder said. “We pray that we can also be open to all the life that can come to us when we grieve the loss of loved ones. And then make the decision to continue to live and be present to life.”
