All are Saints...

486.doc

Scripture: Lectionary 486. Tue. In 31^st week, Year I. Romans 12:5-16. Psalm 131:1.2.3. Luke 14:15-24:

St. Paul’s remarkable passage for today is similar in spirit to the Beatitudes of Jesus given to all of us in his Sermon on the Mount, Mt. 5:1-12. This Gospel is featured on All Saints Day and several other times during the year. Often it is used for weddings and for masses for the departed.

Paul may have reflected on the oral teaching handed on by the apostles and which certainly would have proclaimed the Beatitudes which are a blueprint for all disciples of Jesus. Paul certainly preaches the spirit of these great blessings in the reading. These Beatitudes draw the best out of the human spirit and its search for the living God and for the face of God. Though they are words of happiness and consolation their content is a challenge for each one of us to live out on our journey of faith. Paul’s 12^th chapter is a good interpretation of what they mean for us when we live life in the Spirit.

Paul delineates the different roles that we are called to serve in the Church. We each have something to give to the Lord and to help the growth of the Mystical Body of Christ the Church. Paul tells us some are teachers, others are leaders, others are prophetic. All must have the Beatitudes as a personal development plan for good authentic Christian living. In the past many men and women have taken up these roles of service and became holy persons through the way they lived them out. There is great diversity amidst the unity found in the Communion of Saints. Those who have gone before us in faith attest to this diversity and unity. All of us are called to be holy persons. Paul even addresses the Romans as “saints.”

Jesus again is at a table scene and offers a parable to those present. Three different persons refuse to come because of the inconvenience it would cause them. They give their excuses and do not come. The Lord, however, wants his home to be filled and the banquet to be enjoyed by as many as possible. Others from the highways and forests are invited and do come thus filling up the rooms and making up for the callousness of the ones who excused themselves. We are to listen to Jesus who is the Lord of the Eucharistic Banquet: “I want my house to be full, but I tell you that none of those invited (the three who did not come) shall taste a morsel of my dinner.” Are we among the ones who came from a distance the banquet, or are we the ones who gave excuses for not coming? Perhaps, we are among those already within the halls of the banquet room with the Lord. It is our choice to make. Amen.

ALL SAINTS DAY, NOV.1, 2011

667.doc

Scripture: Lectionary 667. Revelation 7:2-4.9-14. Psalm 24: 1-2.3-4.5-6. I John 3:1-3. Matthew 5:1-12.

All Saints Day is a feast day for everyone. As holy ones we are called to always search for the face of God and long to be in God’s presence now and forever. (Psalm 24:6). We are called like those in the Book of Revelation (the Apocalypse) to worship God alone whether we belong among the 144,000 representing the twelve tribes of Israel or whether we are throng surrounding the throne of God with the angels and twenty-four elders. The symbolism of the Apocalypse calls both Jew and Gentile to be participators with the myriads of holy ones and the angels before God’s throne. The Apocalypse is not a scary writing but one that has a unified message throughout, “WORSHIP GOD ALONE. “ The book of visions is addressed to the seven Christian Churches in Asia Minor and calls all to return to searching for the face of God. Some are doing this better than others but all are called to be holy and to repent of those habits and attitudes that take them away from facing the living God and walking the paths of holiness. The call to sanctity is universal as we learn from the recent teachings of Vatican II. All of the People of God are called to be saints.

I John tells us why this is possible. We are “children of God.” We have the divine imprint upon our being from the first moment of our lives (cf. Gen. 1:26-27). We are the image and likeness of God and our responsibility is to live up to what has been given to us by our Creator who loves us beyond our comprehension.

Then Jesus gives us the way to become saints and that is through the Beatitudes given to us in today’s Gospel. As persons who search to be faithful disciples of the Lord we learn how to live through these wonderful lessons called the beatitudes. The Sermon on the Mount is not an impossible ideal. We are to start with living out one that is fitted to our personality; the others will follow. We can learn how to do this by reading the lives of the Saints who are universally recognized.

Blessed are the poor…. St. Francis of Assisi.

Blessed are they who are the sorrowing (mourning): Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows.

Blessed are the lowly: St. Theresa of the Child Jesus and the Poor of God, the ‘Anawim of the psalms.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for holiness: The hermits, St. Anthony of the Desert

Blessed are the merciful: St. Martin of Tours

Blessed are the Pure of Heart: St. Maria Goretti

Blessed are the Peace Makers: St. Catherine of Siena

Blessed are those persecuted: The martyrs, Stephen, St. Ignatius of Antioch, etc.

Blessed are those insulted and persecuted: The victims of the Shoah (the Holocaust) Amen.

We may wish to reflect on one of the beatitudes that strikes us and fits us for this day. Each of the beatitudes has been exemplified in the saints who have been canonized. We, too may have a special beatitude that helps us to see the face of God and to Worship God alone. Amen.