Sunday 1 November 2015

All Saints Homily of Fr. Raymond

 
 


Sunday, 1 November 2015

Fr. Raymond Homily All Saints Solemnity 1st. November 2015


ALL SAINTS 2015  

  Today, of course we celebrate, not so much the great saints of the church as the little, every day saints of the church The ordinary every day Christians who have fought the good fight and finished the course; all those ordinary acquaintances of all of us who have gone before us and become part of that great multitude in God's heaven.

In order to join that great company they didn't have to do any great and memorable deeds. But what they did have to do is detailed for us in the list of the Beatitudes that Jesus spells out for us in today's Gospel.

The Saints we celebrated today didn't have to give up absolutely everything like the great St Francis, but they did have to be poor in spirit. Their hearts had to have some degree of freedom from excessive desires for what we call the good things of life.

The Saints we celebrated today didn't have to leave home and family and friends and go off to preach the gospel in foreign lands like the twelve apostles or the great missionaries of Christian history; like St Francis Xavier or St Columba., but they did have to have a great love for their faith and a desire to share it with others, at least in their prayers. That is surely the meaning of "Thy Kingdom come" in the Our Father.

The Saints we celebrated today didn't have to minister to lepers or the plague stricken like St Peter Damien, but they did have to be gentle and compassionate in their dealings with others.

The Saints we celebrated today didn't have to undergo the great interior trials and spiritual darkness of the great mystics but they did have to practice perseverance in prayer and bear all the many troubles and trials that are the way in which we all have our share in the passion of Christ.
The Saints we celebrated today didn't have to forgive great injuries and injustices like the Holy Martyr Stephen who prayed for those who were stoning him to death. But they did have to be merciful and forgiving in their own little ways.  

The Saints we celebrated today didn't have to mediate between kings and, potentates like our own St 8ernrd, but they did have to learn how to be peacemakers in their own little circle of family and friends. And to be a peacemaker in such circumstances can sometimes make heroic demands on the least of us.   
Homily by Fr. Raymond
  

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