All Saints/All Souls Day Mass: Remembering how to live like Saints and remembering those who have passed on

Today, Tuesday, November 1st, we came together to celebrate All Saints and All Souls Day. All Saints and All Souls comprise the two-day celebration of the Communion of Saints – those who are with God in heaven and those who are on their way to heaven. Today, All Saints Day, the Church celebrates those Christians who achieved spiritual maturity. The Saints are examples of what it means to live a Christian life, they are examples of servitude and leadership that we can follow in our daily lives. Tomorrow, All Souls Day, the Church remembers and prays for the faithful departed, today we remember and pray for the dearly departed in our own community.  We are asked to remember the ways in which we are all called to live like the Saints, and those in our own lives who have been examples of Christian leadership who have passed on. 

Gospel - Matthew 5:1-12

“When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth(land).
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled (satisfied).
Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 
Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Homily

Today, as we mentioned, is All Saints Day…Normally when we think of saints, we think of people who have be canonized and who have specific feast days on the church calendar, and also who are people of extreme holiness, like Saint Francis of Assisi and Ignatius of Loyola, and there are plenty of others who can come to mind. Today, though, that feast refers to saints in a broader category - both those who have feast days, but also those who are in heaven and whose sainthood is known only to God. 

It may be worth a point of reflection to think about somebody in our lives, someone we may have known or that we may have heard about that fits that description. One of the things that I think is really challenging about saints sometimes to be able to connect with them is when we think of saints, we tend to think of people that either lived a very, very long time ago as if this was something that only happened 1,000 years ago, or we think of people who lived extremely intense lives, which of course there are elements of that, but there is also the element of this that Pope Saint John Paul II emphasized that you, too, can become a saint; becoming a saint is possible for anybody who has lived a life of virtue and is something that we all can aspire to and can eventually achieve.

I think it is worth noting or reflecting on, what images in our life do we have of saints? For me, one of the things that I think of saints, I think there are a lot of lessons to be learned from trees. The humble trees that we see all over the neighborhood, when we go outside we see a tree. One of the things that a tree does - not only does it provide oxygen for us, but it also provides a lot of beauty, provides coolness on a hot day, provides a place for the birds to go and nest in the branches, and I don’t think the birds every provided a thank-you letter to the tree. It also provides a lot of other things, if it’s a fruit tree, it provides food for us to eat…trees also don’t yell at us, they don’t call anybody any names, they don’t come only when it’s convenient; a tree is always there, and I mentioned, there’s a lot of lessons to learn from trees. 

I remember a few years ago, I went to visit my brother and his family in Virginia. At the time, his son was in first grade, and I went with him, his brother, and his wife to school that day and we read, as part of his class, the book called The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. It was a great book for his nephew and his class, but in there, if you remember the book, you have a case of this boy, who eventually becomes a man, and then becomes an old man and this tree. When he is young, the boy comes to this tree and the tree provides him space to play under and provides a place to hang out under when the weather is warm. Then as he gets older and he gets a family, it provides a place for him to come with his family to have a picnic or to just hangout on a nice day, but then as he gets older and becomes an old man, he comes back to that same place where the tree was and the tree is as old as he is and there is not much to it other than a stump, but that is exactly what the old man needs at that point, a stump to sit on. As I mentioned with the birds, this man at no point in his life never wrote a thank-you letter to the tree; at no point did he ever say thank you, at no point did he ever express his gratitude to the tree, but the tree is still there and is always giving and is always providing something for the community in which it is in. And I think there is no better example of saintly conduct than that. 

When we do something for somebody, we do what is right, solely because it is the right thing to do, and some people are going to appreciate it and some people will not. I am sure all of us can think of examples where we have done something for somebody and they did not really appreciate it or they did not reciprocate it. That does not mean we stop giving. We don’t stop doing what is right, we don’t stop being there for the people that rely on us. That is one of the many lessons that we can learn from a tree.

So when we think of saints, maybe not think of only people from a long time ago, granted there were a lot of saints back then, but you want to think also that we, too, nowadays in the 21st century can be a saint as well. And also remember the lessons that we learned from the tree and we can be reminded of them anytime that we see them.

Remembering those who have passed…

As we gather to celebrate all saints and all souls, we remember the saints in our lives, those faithful women and men we have loved, those who have gone before us, we carry their names in reference and we acknowledge their memory with a carry, trusting they will rise forever in God’s tender embrace.

DECEASED CONSTITUTENT DIRECTORY

We remember and pray…

• For our departed parents, signs of God’s unending love for us; our first teachers and protectors, may they be held close to God as they held us in life.
• For our departed grandparents, in life they gifted us with love and wisdom. May we give them eternal life forever.
• For our departed siblings, with them we experienced laughter, growth, and good times. May they enjoy the peace of Christ forever.
• For our departed children, gone too soon. They will always live in our hearts. May they know our faithful love through God’s mercy.
• For our departed spouses and the love they gave us. They showed us the grace of God. May God’s grace fill their hearts for eternity. 
• For all other departed relatives - parts of our heritage and history. May live forever in our families’ memories and in God’s eternal kingdom.
• For our departed friends, we miss the companionship, the fun, and the support they share with us. May they rest in the ageless presence of God’s love.
• For our departed alumnae of Resurrection College Prep, in both life and death, they are our sisters, united bonds of Charity and Truth. May God grant them the glory of the son’s resurrection until the end of time.
• For our departed staff of Resurrection College Prep, their legacy lives on in the lives of colleagues and students they have touched. May they dwell in the paradise of God’s eternal love.
• For our departed Sisters of the Resurrection, faithful and tireless signs of God’s transforming love. May they enjoy forever the eternal reward of their earthly labors.
• For our departed Christian Brothers of the Midwest, who were dedicated to education and living out the message of Saint John Baptist De La Salle. May they rest in the life of Christ.