Homily for All Saints

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Homily for All Saints; Deacon Greg Kandra
Topic Started: Saturday, 31. October 2009, 21:11 (20 Views)
KatyA	Saturday, 31. October 2009, 21:11 Post #1
Administrator Posts: 5,199 Group: Admin Member #6 Joined: September 26, 2006	Shortly after he converted to Catholicism in the late 1930s, Thomas Merton was walking the streets of New York with his friend, Robert Lax. Lax was Jewish, and he asked Merton what he wanted to be, now that he was Catholic. "I don't know," Merton replied, adding simply that he wanted to be a good Catholic. Lax stopped him in his tracks. "What you should say," he told him, "is that you want to be a saint!" Merton was dumbfounded. "How do you expect me to become a saint?," Merton asked him. Lax said: "All that is necessary to be a saint is to want to be one. Don't you believe that God will make you what He created you to be, if you will consent to let him do it? All you have to do is desire it." Thomas Merton knew his friend was right. Merton, of course, would go on to become one of the great spiritual thinkers and writers of the last century. His friend Bob Lax would later convert to Catholicism himself -- and begin his own journey to try and be a saint. But the words Lax spoke ring down through the decades to all of us today. Because they speak so simply and profoundly to our calling as Catholic Christians. You should want to be a saint. And to be one, all you need is to want to be one. Of course, if you only want to be a run-of-the-mill, average Christian, that's probably all you'll ever be. Every one can do just enough to get by. It's not hard. But the message Christ sends to all of us is an invitation to be something more. In the words of the old Army recruiting ad: be all that you can be. Be a saint. If anyone has any doubts how to do that, Matthew's gospel today is a helpful how-to guide. You might call it "Becoming a Saint for Dummies." We know it better as The Beatitudes. "Blessed are..." With those two words Jesus begins a beautiful instruction in how to live the life of a saint. Pope Benedict has taken that a step further: in his remarkable book "Jesus of Nazareth," he suggests that the beatitudes are nothing less than a self-portrait of Christ. It is a portrait of what all of us should aspire to. To be poor in spirit...to be meek...to be merciful. To hunger and thirst for righteousness. To be clean of heart and to make peace. Taken as a whole, the Beatitudes also sum up the beautiful refrain of today's responsorial psalm. Because "Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face." This is the people that want to be saints. Most of us are familiar with the phenomenal saintly stories of the Church. We grew up hearing of how John was beheaded, and Stephen was stoned; how Francis got the stigmata, or how Therese suffered humiliations and disease to die an early death. You hear stories like that and you can't blame Thomas Merton for not really being eager to be a saint. It's not only hard work, it often doesn't have a happy ending. But those are the stories we hear about. There are countless stories - millions, throughout the centuries - that we don't. They are the anonymous saints who go about their daily lives quietly, peacefully, joyfully, finally entering into the fullness of grace without doing anything more dramatic than merely living the beatitudes. They are the unsung saints. If you visit the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, you'll see magnificent tapestries lining the walls. And they really are magnificent, designed and executed by the artist John Nava. They remind me of the work of Norman Rockwell or Andrew Wyeth - dramatic, realistic, and contemporary depictions of ordinary people of extraordinary character. And they adorn the walls of the cathedral the same way that stained glass windows once decorated the great Gothic cathedrals of Europe. In the tapestries, you can see all the familiar saints whose names we know, in a row, facing toward the altar, as if in line for communion. It is - literally and figuratively - the communion of the saints. There is St. Nicholas, St. Gregory, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Francis, St. Clare...and on and on, with their names over their heads. But scattered among those saints are people without names - people you won't find in Butler's "Lives of the Saints." A teenage girl. A young man from the barrio. Children in contemporary clothes. They are the saints whose names are known only to God. It is a beautiful and eloquent depiction of the day we celebrate today: All Saints. And the message of those tapestries is the message of this feast day: these unknown saints are just as worthy as they ones who are known. They look like us. They look like people we might pass on the street. If they can be holy, can't we all? What does it take to join them? As Bob Lax explained, to a man whom some people today consider a saint: All you really need...is to want to. And God will do all the rest. Greg Kandra Deacon's Bench



KatyA	Tuesday, 3. November 2009, 14:14 Post #2
Administrator Posts: 5,199 Group: Admin Member #6 Joined: September 26, 2006	VATICAN CITY, NOV. 2, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave Sunday before and after praying the midday Angelus with the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square. Dear Brothers and Sisters! This Sunday coincides with the solemnity of All Saints, which invites the pilgrim Church on earth to anticipate the endless celebration of the heavenly community, and to revive the hope in eternal life. It is 14 centuries ago this year since the Pantheon -- one of the most ancient and famous Roman monuments -- was destined to Christian worship and dedicated to the Virgin Mary and all the martyrs: Sancta Maria ad Martyres. The temple of all the pagan divinities thus became a memorial of all those who, as the Book of Revelation states, "are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" (Revelation 7:14). Subsequently, the celebration of all the martyrs was extended to all the saints, "a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues" (Revelation 7:9) -- as is expressed by St. John. In this Year of Priests, I like to remember with special veneration all holy priests, both those whom the Church has canonized, proposing them as examples of spiritual and pastoral virtues, as well as those -- much more numerous -- whom the Lord knows. Each one of us cherishes the memory of some one of them, who has helped us to grow in the faith and has made us feel the goodness and closeness of God. Tomorrow we will observe the annual commemoration of all the deceased faithful. I would like to invite you to live this annual celebration in keeping with a genuine Christian spirit, that is, in the light that proceeds from the Paschal Mystery. Christ has died and risen and has opened to us the way to the house of the Father, Kingdom of life and peace. He who follows Jesus in this life is received where he has preceded us. Therefore, while we visit cemeteries, let us remember that there, in the tombs, only the mortal remains of our loved ones rest, while awaiting the final resurrection. Their souls -- as Scripture says -- already "are in the hand of God" (Wisdom 3:1). Hence, the most appropriate and effective way to honor them is to pray for them, offering acts of faith, hope and charity. In union with the Eucharistic sacrifice, we can intercede for their eternal salvation, and experience the most profound communion while awaiting to be reunited again, to enjoy forever the love that created us and redeemed us. Dear friends, how beautiful and consoling is the communion of saints! It is a reality that infuses a different dimension to our whole life. We are never alone! We form part of a spiritual "company" in which profound solidarity reigns: the good of each one is for the benefit of all and, vice versa, the common happiness is radiated in each one. It is a mystery that, in a certain measure, we can already experience in this world, in the family, in friendship, especially in the spiritual community of the Church. May Mary Most Holy help us to walk swiftly on the way of sanctity and show herself a Mother of mercy for the souls of the deceased.



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