A Short Sunday Sermon

 

There it is, you've no sooner recovered from the admirable Uganda Police Band than you're in church conjuring with the Saints, the innumerable multitude of the holy who stand before God's throne in the exultant liturgy of heaven. As through a door or window opened up into paradise, we see them in the book of Revelation:

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!"

 

Behold the glory of the beatific vision, and with it we're reminded that sanctity is our common vocation, we're all called to be saints, but how? By imitating Christ, patterning our lives after the pattern of Christ's life, and our Savior reveals his character to us in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12). 

Blessed are the poor in spirit, the humble. This is Jesus who "humbled himself taking the form of a servant and became obedient even unto death." Blessed are those who mourn, and Christ does precisely that, he grieves for the sin of the world and its deadly effect. Think on the two awful and piercing words at the death of Lazarus, "Jesus wept." Blessed are the meek or gentle? Such is Jesus, a gentle man as opposed to an arrogant, aggressive, boastful man, "Come to me for I am gentle and lowly in heart."

Again, "Zeal for your house has consumed me." Our Lord hungers and thirsts for righteousness as he drives the moneylenders out of the Temple. And mercy? "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone," and he doesn't, though qualified to do so. Instead, the sinless man, in utter purity, brings peace to the world, uniting fallen humanity to the Father on the cross where he dies for the forgiveness of our sins. 

Humility, compassion, gentleness, righteousness, mercy, purity and peace, the character of Christ and the path of holiness which Jesus invites us to walk. Those who do become saints, indwelt, purified and redeemed by the Holy One of Israel.

Can it be done? Yes. The Saints, from righteous Abel through the Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, and Martyrs, up to the holy men and women of today show us that sanctity, by the grace of God, is very real. Christ invites us to follow him so that we may attain it and the crown of glory which fadeth not away.

God bless,

LSP

All Saints

 

Today we celebrate the great Feast of All Saints, of the holy men and women through whom God works with mighty, miraculous power. People whose lives have been transformed, elevated, by supernatural indwelling grace.

Here's Benedict XVI:

But "why should our praise and glorification, or even the celebration of this Solemnity, mean anything to the Saints?". A famous homily of St Bernard for All Saints' Day begins with this question. It could equally well be asked today. And the response the Saint offers us is also timely: "The Saints", he says, "have no need of honour from us; neither does our devotion add the slightest thing to what is theirs.... But I tell you, when I think of them, I feel myself inflamed by a tremendous yearning" (Disc. 2, Opera Omnia Cisterc. 5, 364ff.).

This, then, is the meaning of today's Solemnity: looking at the shining example of the Saints to reawaken within us the great longing to be like them; happy to live near God, in his light, in the great family of God's friends. Being a Saint means living close to God, to live in his family. And this is the vocation of us all...

The Church's experience shows that every form of holiness, even if it follows different paths, always passes through the Way of the Cross, the way of self-denial. The Saints' biographies describe men and women who, docile to the divine plan, sometimes faced unspeakable trials and suffering, persecution and martyrdom. They persevered in their commitment: "they... have come out of the great tribulation", one reads in Revelation, "they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" (Rv 7: 14). Their names are written in the book of life (cf. Rv 20: 12) and Heaven is their eternal dwelling-place.

 

And again:

Holiness demands a constant effort, but it is possible for everyone because, rather than a human effort, it is first and foremost a gift of God, thrice Holy (cf. Is 6: 3). In the second reading, the Apostle John remarks: "See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are" (I Jn 3: 1).

 

Holiness requires a constant effort, ain't that the truth, but it is possible for everyone because, rather than a human effort, it is first and foremost a gift of God. Alleluia.

God bless you all,

LSP