November 1, 2015
ALL SAINTS – Year B
- It is no coincidence that this feast shadows that of ALL SOULS day.
- Today we focus on those whose names we know; those acknowledged by the Church as holy, like unto God, who are with God, in the mystery of a love that we call Heaven.
- Yesterday, October 31, we entered into the popularised version of Halloween. The evening of the day of ‘waiting’ on the loving embrace of God.
- It is played out in pumpkins and witches and scary games to entice a payment to young kids walking the neighbourhood.
- In fact, it is much more serious. It welcomes to the community of saints those not yet formally recognised as dwelling in the love and mystery of God – and that will be you and me.
- The Gospel of the Beatitudes engenders a seriousness into our celebrations that is lost in the playfulness of Halloween and the indifference to All Saints.
- It praises those who mourn (the suffering among us); the unknown and marginal people (the uneducated, isolated and damaged); it praises the just and those who care for others and agitate for what is right.
- Not one of us has all these qualities. These people of virtue often live their holiness out of sight.
- Perhaps these ‘Beatitude’ people, who have strange blessings, are blessed because they know suffering. And in knowing suffering they know the sufferings of others.
- Or they are people too damaged and beated to create a noise and be noticed. They may even be people who do the wrong thing to stave off hunger and the worst kind of poverty.
- In truth, they are blessed, not for their own achievements but for God’s strength within them that can do more than we can imagine.
- They are ranked by God not by human insight and law.
- Very often the laws of forgiveness, compassion and mercy take a back-seat in our society.
- We see this with our policy on Refugees (by sea). According to Mr Abbott, at the Margaret Thatcher Lecture, turning back boats and incarcerating offshore will “knaw at our conscience”; Mr Turnbull is softer, “it is a melancholy truth” to keep the borders safe.
- These legal or illegal niceties, it seems to me, to not register with fair-minded citizens.
- The ‘clean of heart’ would know better.
- The history of All Saints was to distract Catholics from too much emphasis on individual cults. It was to embrace the community of saints that we walk with towards God. To live together as a community of the Gospel.
- To be holy is simply to follow Jesus Christ, in our work and professions, in our family and community involvement. We are, however, to be driven by more than professionalism; we march to faith and hope.
- We are called to be inspred by Christ and Him crucified, who chose truth and goodness above the existing wisdoms.
- It would be sweet to say that the heart has its reasons – like the Little Prince – but it is surely wise to say that the head too, armed with the gospel, is the best guide to living the holy life.
- The saints are thought to be devout and so they are. While they do not all fall into categories of piety and devotion, they mark out the territory in which we should all live, namely, within boundaries of love, compassion and mercy. Also, in service of building up the downcast.
- Saintliness exists, it seems, according to the Beatitudes, whenever we make a choice for goodness; rise above our circumstances and defend the life of others.
- The new Cathedral in Los Angeles is the most modern of churches. It has many features. For me, visiting, it was the enormous imported tapestries along both walls. They show the range of American Indian, pioneers and inventors and workers, walking towards the altar and sanctuary in a procession, both ordinary and great, united in faiths, committed to each other and to something more.
- Whoever lives for that ‘something more’ in life will find it in heaven as a saint of God.