Homily Cycle A 11/01/2020
Readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/103120.cfm
So, you want to be a saint? Are you sure? Maybe you don’t really want to be a saint? If you don’t want to be a saint, why not?
Disciples of Jesus Christ are called to be saints; that’s you and me. Pope [Emeritus] Benedict XVI wrote, “To become saints means we fulfill completely what we already are, … adopted children in Jesus Christ.” [Magnificat, November 2020, p.27]
Today, November 1st, we celebrate, “The Solemnity of All Saints”. The French writer Leon Bloy famously said, “There is only one real sadness in life: not becoming a saint.” [Ibid., p.20]
St. John points out in Revelation, we have “… been marked with the seal” - “… the seal of the servants of God.” Our Responsorial Psalm reminds us that our ultimate goal to see the God’s face. And in our second reading we heard, “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called children of God ….”
Truly honorable are the poor in spirit, not economically poor, they realize this world is the way to heaven. Jesus teaches us that “… true honor and esteem are determined by God ….” [Ibid.] In fact, Jesus gives us three honorable and esteemed behaviors: poor, mourning and hungering.
Today’s Solemnity points to our goal – to be a saint, to be with God forever in heaven. During the last few Sundays of the Church’s Liturgical Year (Advent starts 11/29/2020, the new Liturgical Year) our readings focus on the final things, the end of history.
We have over 10,000 declared saints but, they are far more saints who have not been declared. St. Francis de Sales said, “Saints are people who do ordinary things, extraordinarily well.” – Love God!
Maybe this story can shed some light on the ordinary, done extraordinarily well.
“A Father’s Love”
Philip Yancey in his book Disappointment with God, described a visit his widowed mother; they looked through a box of old photos. A picture of an eight-month-old baby caught his eye.
Tattered and bent, the picture looked too banged up to be worth keeping, so he asked her why, she had kept this one. “… she had kept the photo as a memento, because during my father’s illness it had been fastened to his iron lung.”
During the last four months of his life, Yancey’s father lay on his back, completely paralyzed by polio at the age of twenty-four, encased from the neck down in a huge, cylindrical breathing unit. He had asked his wife for pictures of her and their two boys. The photos had to be jammed between metal knobs so that he could see them, and last four months of his life were spent looking at that photo.
An ordinary thing, done extraordinarily well.
This week read Matthew Chapters 5 thru 8 and make them your blueprint for living. For a few minutes to reflect on your goal is it to be a saint?
May God Be Praised!
COVID 19 Pandemic Prayer
Hear my cry! “Lord, listen to my prayer: turn your ear to my appeal.” You are my refuge and my hope, I turn to you during this COVID 19 Pandemic and plead for Your intercession. In Your mercy and Your compassion “… grant eternal rest to the dead, comfort to mourners, healing to the sick ….”
[Psalm 143 and Collect from Mass Time in Pandemic]
Provide strength to the first responders, compassion to the medical personnel, and wisdom to government leaders. End this coronavirus scourge. Send Your light to me as I wander in the darkness of this pandemic and give me hope in Your eternal love today and every day. Amen. [Dcn. George Kelly]
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