Word to the Wise
Wednesday, November 1, 2006 - Feast of All Saints
[Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14; 1 John 3:1-3; Matthew 5:1-12A]See what love the Father has bestowede on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are!
"Saint" is a term that I would be willing to wager few of us would want to use to describe ourselves. Most of us would associate this term with morally perfect, sinless individuals. Somehow they "made it" to heaven and are not to be considered as one of us! If we think that way about the "saints" we are mistaken! That is not what saints are all about. Saints are a reminder to us that we belong to a vast community of persons who love God. Some of the saints were weird folks. Some of them were "ordinary" - yes, ORDINARY! Why? Because this feast is not about the "canonized" only! In fact, I shouldn't use the past tense to speak of them, even those who are dead. We all belong to the "communion of saints" which we profess every Sunday in the Nicene Creed! We are all called to be "saints." We are called by virtue of baptism to take our faith seriously and strive to live it out day in and day out! I think we all know folks of that kind. Strangely enough, it's always somebody else. We don't dare think of ourselves that way! Maybe that's good so that we don't think we have "arrived" in such a way that we now glow in the dark and don't need to keep trying anymore! However, sainthood isn't about "glowing in the dark" or wearing a halo around our heads or even being "raised to the altar" (to use an old fashioned Catholic expression). It's about the serious step by step carrying of the cross every day, and falling under its weight. It's also about the joy of knowing and loving God in the everyday events of life - the birth of a child, the touch of a friend, the cup of water to someone in need. On All Saints Day, we could look at one another in a new light and realize we are looking at a saint! Lord knows we have enough of them in the past, but we need them so much in the present! AMEN
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