Main Scripture of the Holy Day: The Beatitudes of Jesus from Matthew’s Gospel.
Let’s all be saints in the making, my friends! It’s our day to consider it. All Saints Day.
We recall today not only the Saints who have been canonized by the Church which have recently included some very interesting ones elevated by Pope Leo, but also we figure ourselves as called to be pleasing to God and to make it into the hallowed hallways of Heaven. Jesus speaks to all practitioners of His new way of life, via the Beatitudes, that there is a reward great in Heaven for us who live so.
In that list of ways of living for God, some of them are challenging, as it is not easy to be meek, or to suffer for doing good, or to try to be a peacemaker in that fighting society today. Yet All Saints holds out a great call to be Jesus-hearted and live the Call and to persevere on the holy pilgrimage home to God.
I do like the example of the recently made canonized saints. Peter To Rot of Papa New Guinea was a brave character. His way of Christian service was to be a catechist in his land and to act as a parish leader. The time he did so included when Imperial Japanese forces occupied Papa New Guinea in World War II. The invaders imprisoned Catholics and tried to stop people like Peter from living his faith, but Peter held on strong. and eventually the Japanese executed him to intimidate the natives to submission and denial of faith. That did not work. It instead encouraged a wave of Catholicism in post World War II there. I recall when in the 1990’s when I heard of Peter To Rot, and his beatification by Pope John Paul, it was when I had a Papa New Guinea man in our parish as a student, named John Barames, and John said that Peter’s 1930’s and 1940’s legacy of faith so touched him, as John got born in 1960, and was taught the same firm faith in that native land of Papa New Guinea, that John became a dedicated and courageous Catholic. John lives back there in Port-Vila, Oceania, Papa New Guinea.
All Saint’s Day is a holy day of great hope that sainthood is possible for us—canonized or not. My friend John, I don’t think he’s a future name for Pope Leo to consider, and, well—he can’t—as canonized saints are those people who have gone ahead of us to God already. But John became a priest for the Marist religious order there—and now he is also a bishop there. He is making a big difference in the land, and thanks to Peter To Rot and his example.
Saintly people to spiritually beget other saintly people. The Spirit of God aflame in you can pass on to me, and the other way back, too.
We are all called to be saintly. In Heaven you’ll get the crown of glory, and honors, but here on earth we go about our day-to-day living for God as best our hearts can do, and by God’s grace.
What’s ahead in Heaven for us? God will just tell us that a great reward awaits. That ought to be enough incentive.
If we could only see what the Lord has prepared for us!
If we only knew the way now of how that God enjoys living in our souls and helping us work with Him daily, in bringing the good fruits of love and righteousness into the world. If we would realize that we have in our choices acts that invite the Light of God to shine in us and inspire us to our best version of ourselves.
Jesus will turn the wrong into right, any darkness or shadows to light, and sorrows or pains to ways of participating with Him in His loving Passion. Jesus will take the normal you and be working on the saint you to present to the Everlasting Father one fine day.
In this Gospel as Jesus speaks about the 8 Beatitudes, He really is in fact, showing us His own Self-portrait. Jesus is all those 8 Beatitudes perfectly, but now He wants to live them out in we, His people.
By this invitation to live the saintly life, He offers us the possibility of living in a new world; where the poor in spirit are rich, because theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven; where those who mourn are consoled, because God is their consolation; where those who hunger for righteousness are satisfied, because Jesus is never outdone in generosity; and finally, where those who are persecuted or despised for the Lord are happy, because their joy is to love Jesus.
A Saint is the one who embodies these Beatitudes in their ordinary life; the one who cooperates with God’s grace to practice them. And this is important: God does not only give us an incomparable happiness in eternity, for the Kingdom is already come among us, and the Saint is much happier here and now, because their entire life is Jesus; and only Jesus is that joy.
The Saints remind us what our final purpose is–That God has created us for Him. St. Augustine said, “How is it, then, that I seek you, Lord? Since in seeking you, my God, I seek a happy life, let me seek you so that my soul may live, for my body draws life from my soul and my soul draws life from you.” I use that quote because it is one that gives our Pope Leo 14 much inspiration, and for many years of his life it has been so.
Finally, today’s celebration- and the horizon of glory which opens up before our eyes -encourages us to endure with strength the crosses and setbacks that the Lord puts on our shoulders during this life. In fact, now is the time of the test: today, there are sufferings, illnesses, the loss of loved ones, tears of the heart, persecutions and slander; but one day, if you are faithful, Jesus Himself will dry your tears and will console you. For that reason, be joyful. Or as the Scripture says it: Be ye glad. The sufferings of this lifetime end, but Jesus remains forever. St. Teresa of Jesus used to say, “The struggle will not last long, but the outcome will be eternal.”
May all the Saints, especially the Virgin Mary or all your patron saints of Confirmation, serve as models of how to live our lives. If we can follow their example, one day we will find ourselves, with them and all of our loved ones in Heaven; where we will be in the likeness of God, because we will see Him just as He is, as today’s Bible verse in John’s letter says, and that vision will last forever and ever. It’s called the Beatific Vision. Amen.
Fr. Barry