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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