All Saints

The Solemnity of All Saints 2017 – Cycle A Revelation 7: 2-4, 9-14; Psalm 24; 1 John 3:1-3; Matthew 5:1-12

Have you considered that when we contemplate the saints, we are looking at a finished product?

Before Francis became “Saint Francis” he was just Francesco di Bernardone, the wealthy son of a cloth merchant in the small Tuscan town of Assisi.  Before she was known as Saint Teresa of Kolkata, Mother Teresa was known simply as Sister Agnes, an Albanian nun working in her order’s school in India.   Before Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton, was known as “Saint Elizabeth”, she was a wife and then a single mom, struggling to raise five children after her husband died only 9 years after their marriage.  Before Saint Ignatius of Loyola founded the Jesuit Order he was a vain and arrogant young solider.

All women and men who we claim as saints started somewhere.  Holiness is a journey of ordinary people who with God’s grace come to do extraordinary things or maybe better yet, ordinary people who do humble, mundane things infused with the power of the Spirit.  Saints journeyed into holiness; and though being very aware of their sinfulness and limitations journeyed deeper and deeper into life with Christ.  And don’t think that at their deaths, the journey was complete.

I think we forget the humanity of the men and women we proclaim and pray to as saints; the holy ones.  We have the understanding that holiness is attributed to “special” people and we are not special or people who live in a religious realm like, bishops, priests and nuns; a life beyond the reach of the vast majority of Christians.  This is a convenient fiction we tell ourselves; it is a way of letting ourselves off the hook of entering on the journey of holiness.  Yet the Second Vatican Council in reflecting on the people of the Church states: “everyone…is called to holiness”.  Everyone is called to be a saint because it is the will of God for us.  [See Lumen gentium, chapter V. #39]

The letter of John invites us on the journey:

“Beloved: See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God.  Yet so we are.  Everyone who has this hope based on God makes themselves pure, as Christ is pure.”  [1 John 3:1,3]

And where does the journey start?  The journey to holiness begins right where you and I find ourselves in life at this time.

Are you a student?  Your journey begins in the classroom.  Are you a parent?  Your journey begins in the care of your children.  Are you widowed?  Your journey begins in your grief and longing for your spouse.  Are you a caretaker for a parent or spouse?  Your journey begins with the daily care and patience needed to care for another person.  Are you single?  Your journey begins in the freedom of unencumbered time and openness to all people.  Are you a spouse?  Your journey begins in the life of your husband or wife. Are you cantankerous, judgmental, slanderous, arrogant, stingy, selfish or have to have things your own way?  Your journey begins in discovering and fostering the opposite quality within yourself.  What do you do for a living?  Your journey begins at work in the midst of your coworkers.  Do you own a business?  Your journey begins in the fairness and honesty you treat your employees and customers.  As a priest, my journey begins in this parish.

Jesus never outlined a criteria for canonization, but he did enumerate a list of qualities for those who are “blessed”: the poor in spirit, the merciful, the pure of heart, peacemakers, those who suffer persecution, and people who hunger for justice.

There are as many paths to grow in holiness as there a human beings.  Our paths cross and encourage each other.  That is why the church puts the example of the women, men and children that we call saints before us as models so as to spur us on.  And if the son of a wealthy tradesman, a nun, a wife, mother and widow, and a soldier can grow in holiness so can you and me.  It is God’s will for us.

[Gratia tibi. Ideas from Saints not Superheroes by Robert Ellsberg, America, March 20, 2017 issue]