All Saints – November 1, 2020 – Matthew 5: 1-12 – 10am Mass – with 1stEucharist students
Happy All Saints’ Feast Day to you and to all you love! This is one feast of the Church Year that we say is for ALL of us. Let me begin with the brief story of a typical day inside the pearly gates of paradise in heaven. St. Peter meets the new arrivals at the gate, and is leading each of them to his and her unique heavenly place. Like a good tour guide, Peter points out all the unique and interesting places to visit in the heavens, when they have some time. But then, Peter and the group come to a place where there’s a turn on the heavenly path, and suddenly Peter is telling everyone to please be quiet, as they go past that chamber of paradise. Of course, all of them complied: it would have been difficult to challenge St. Peter on his own turf. And when the group is well past that paradise corridor, a woman asks St. Peter why they had to be quiet. Peter tells her it’s a situation that he and Jesus have been working on for years. That particular hall was filled just with Catholics, and they still believed after all these years, that only RCs went to heaven! Like just being RC was the guarantee!
As you and I are called to know that there are LOTS of varieties of people in heaven, we might remember one thing: they ALL started out here on earth. I heard a very famous song being played by a great street band: the band was just leaving church, and was on their way to the churchyard with of their recently-departed members. And when I heard the song, I couldn’t help but sing along and clap: maybe you’ve heard it somewhere, too (you can clap if you know it:) Oh when the saints, come marching in, oh when the saints come marching in: Oh Lord, I want to be in their number, when the saints come marching in. That’s a great message for today: you and I are called to be among the saints, the holy one, to whom OTHERS look for strength, and help, and support, and consolation.
So, HOW exactly do we do that? The answer is today’s Gospel and it’s called the Beatitudes: some people called it "The Be Happy Attitudes,” but I prefer to call it the Be Godly Attitudes, because life is certainly NOT about being HAPPY ALL THE TIME: it’s about developing peace, God’s shalom SO DEEP inside our SOULS, SO DEEP inside OUR HEARTS, that no one, but NO one can take away from us. That means that you and I grow and develop a STRONG interior life, a HOLY life, a SAINTLY life, a life that’s IN UNION and IN SYNC with God’s heaven and earth plan. So what the problem: what’s the holdup?
The problem is some Catholic Christians believe God is CALLING someone else, and NOT calling THEM, to be holy. Some people have a PICTURE in their heads and/or their hearts of what a saint looks or behaves like: it’s often a hollow or anemic picture, like someone walking around all day with their hands folded, like someone was a plastic robot just saying prayers. No: living a Beatitude life, a Be Godly life is about being TOTALLY connected with God and others because we love them!
I’ve shared with some of you the story about Annie and Tim and their mom and dad. Annie is 8; Tim is just 5. They LOVED Saturday mornings, because all 4 of them had a big breakfast together: bacon, eggs, and pancakes. And on one Saturday, just as the first pancake was about to come off the grill, Annie and Tim regress to being little babies: each one is shouting that THEY want the first pancake! Their mom and dad see an educational opportunity: mom says, “What’s the matter with you? we’ve taught you SO many times about sharing.” And Dad jumps in: “Right: if Jesus were here right now, he’d want BOTH of you to be okay with the OTHER one having the 1st pancake.” And Annie, age 8, without blinking an eye, looks at her younger brother Tim, and says, “Okay Tim, you be Jesus!”
Right: everyone want everyone ELSE to be Jesus. But the saints, including people here in church today, DO take Jesus VERY SERIOUSLY: they LOVE and SERVE just like Jesus, even when people make fun of them about praying the rosary, going to church, receiving Holy Communion, saying your prayers each day, and so on. The saints – the people CLOSE to God & neighbor, DON’T CARE what ANYONE other than God thinks about them. Why? Because they KNOW they have God’s truth and love INSIDE them, helping to make a better world. That’s what saints do: that’s what YOU and I are called to do. Remember the biography of St. Francis: he kept talking about births: Birth #1. Into this world; Birth #2. Into the church by way of Baptism; Birth #3. Into eternal life, to be with God forever.
Francis was CENTURIES ahead of his time, telling us to take care of the water, air and all the animals: to RESPECT the animals as creations of God, just like the sun, moon, stars are God’s creations too. Yes, you too CAN be holy and whole in God’s sight: saint with a cap S or small S: it’s okay either way: just KEEP ON DOING wonderful things for God, until you get it right. And then, you’ll be in that number, when the saints go marching in!