All Saints November 1, 2009

Revelation: 7:2-4, 9-14 1 John 3: 1-3 Matthew 5: 1-12

When I had the opportunity to teach students in the eight grade, one of the first questions that I would ask them to think about and to explore was what went into the fact that they were here, at this time and in this place. I asked them to answer the question, “Why do I happen to be here, in this Catholic school that is a part of Saint Mel Parish?” I wanted them to understand that choices had been made, values were important to various people in their lives over the years. There might have been certain coincidences which led to them being here, but certainly decisions had been made that led to each one was in this particular place, on this particular morning.

Now, we are all here, in St. Mel Catholic Church, with all the others who are here. We are together now, joining with others, in worshiping God according to Catholic practice. In most instances, parents, grandparents, persons even further back in our individual histories, generations near and fra, made choices for any variety of reasons that instilled the faith we share because of the meaning it had for them in their lives. They adopted practices which have been handed on and continue to be passed on even now.

In many ways these persons who have gone on before us, these are the individuals we can understand as being remembered on this feast of All Saints. Were they all saints? If we think of saints only as being persons who led perfect lives, who made perfect choices, who always did perfect things, no, they are not all saints. In some cases that “no” might be quite definite.

Are we all saints? We who come after them, their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, are we all saints? No. But we are here, out of faith, out of conviction, out of practice, out of routine. And we, too, have failed in different ways in life. We have made wrong choices. We have said and done, and even now, do things that are not “saintly.”

But we, like those who went before us, go on. We go on struggling in life, making choices and decisions with faith and trust in God; with a faith that is challenged and a trust that its tested. But this faith and this trust are basic and still effective in our lives.

We go on, looking to one another, relying on one another, for example, for encouragement, for simple presence with one another. We do this in this action of worship, in this common effort to give honor and glory to God.

We go on, nourished by our God in the Eucharist we share, nourished on word, nourished in communion, that “food for the journey” offered to us by God.

We do this, striving to be joined with God and with one another, in living a life without end. As St. John writes, we are working to become “like him,” seeing “him like he is,” as the source of life, the source of our lives, the source of all that is.

We do this because, in the vision of the Book of Revelation, we are working to survive the “test,” the struggle, the opposition, the distress that we as human beings often inflict on ourselves and on one another as we live day to day. At the same time we are trying to remain faithful to the values, the principles, the faith and the trust that so often others before us lived and tried to pass on to us.

We do this, convinced by the words, the teachings, the encouragement of Jesus that blessedness, happiness, is and can be experienced in life. It is experienced by detachment from material things in a poverty of spirit, in the pain of mourning the loss of those from whom we are separated, in meekness, in the desire for what is right and goo, in a purity of mind and heart. Abs we can even experience this blessedness and happiness in the stress and difficulty of rejection, ridicule and opposition.

I often marvel at what those who went before us did in their lives. I wonder at the sacrifices they made, the selflessness the exhibited for spouses, for families, for parish. I am inspired by the ability they showed in overcoming the mistakes that were made and the obstacles raised because of their faith and trust in God and the conviction they had about the values, the ideals, the principles that were so important to them. These were values, ideals and principles they sought to hand on to those who followed them, and to hand on to us who are present here today.

On this day of “All Saints,” a day to recall and a day ro renew, we recall those who have gone on before, those who faith and lives in so many ways are the reason for the faith that brings us here today. We renew our faith, our conviction, our commitment, to be and to show and to live what it is that we are, along with those with us in memory and fact: a communion of saints knowing, living and being of service as images and reflections of our good and loving God.