Homily
for November 1, 2007
Liturgical Year C - Cycle I
All Saints Day
By Fr. John Carney Topic:
Becoming a Saint
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Gospel
Mt 5:1-12a When Jesus saw the
crowds, he went up the mountain,and after
he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He began to teach them,
saying: “Blessed are the
poor in spirit, for theirs is the
Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they
who mourn, for they will be
comforted. Blessed are the
meek, for they will
inherit the land. Blessed are they
who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be
satisfied. Blessed are the
merciful, for they will be
shown mercy. Blessed are the
clean of heart, for they will see
God. Blessed are the
peacemakers, for they will be
called children of God. Blessed are they
who are persecuted for the sake of
righteousness, for theirs is the
Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you
when they insult you and persecute you and utter every
kind of evil against you falsely because
of me. Rejoice and be
glad,
for your reward will be great in heaven."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Today is Deacon Tony Porto’s birthday.
Doesn’t seem fair
making the poor man work on his 90th birthday.
We are ruthless. Today is All Saints’ Day.
We use the term a lot but do we know what it means? The word
saint, of course, is an English word
that comes from the Latin word Sanctus which means holy and holy has a
number
of meanings. It means sacred. It really means to be set
apart as God is set
apart so perfectly. For us, holiness
also means to be in right relationship with God. So the question
is: How do we become
saints? We come here to honor the saints
today but we don’t kid ourselves; we want to go where they lie.
That’s really the reason we gather
today. How do we become saints? Well, in one way it’s ours to lose.
In baptism, original sin is wiped away and we
become children of God. If we keep
ourselves pure and holy and unstained by sin until the day we die then
sainthood was ours from that moment of baptism.
But that’s not the everyman’s story, is it? So, we have to lead a
good life. We do that by listening to scripture, by
following the Beatitudes that we just heard proclaimed and we can learn
from
those who have gone before us. We learn
from the saints, especially our Blessed Mother.
Of course, most perfectly we learn to be holy by doing those things
Christ did, by being Christ-like. Today, on All Saints’ Day, we
contemplate the lives of
the canonized saints of our church. The word canon means order.
The church began to actually list an order of
saints only about 1000 years AD, about 1000 years ago. There are
several thousand saints that have
been officially recognized in the canon of saints. I heard and I
think it’s true that the late
Holy Father John Paul II canonized more saints than had existed in all
the
years from the year 1000 until his pontificate.
As a matter of fact, I think soon many of the martyrs of the Spanish
Revolution will be canonized. They were
many lay people, priests and religious who were killed by the, I guess,
the
socialist or leftist forces. One of
those priests killed was Father Roca’s brother.
Do many of you know Father Roca from Chimayo? Well, the rest of
you need to go to Chimayo
to meet Father Roca. If he stood next to
Tony, you’d call Tony the tall one. He’s
about as wide as he is tall. He’s a
wonderful old priest. His brother, I
believe, is about to be canonized. Who were the saints?
Well, they were kings and peasants, rich and poor, men and women,
married and religious. They were
lawyers, soldiers, priests, laborers, farmers, mothers, nurses,
teachers; they
were us. They looked like us. They did what we do. If
you looked for a common thread throughout
the saints or among the saints, I think you’d agree it’s selflessness.
They were selfless people. They focused on others more than
themselves
and so maybe we can learn something from that.
I remember in preparation for
priesthood and seminary,
all we did was talk about my prayer life and my spiritual direction and
my
studies. Everything seemed to be inward
looking and I hope they’ve changed that program because to serve people
as
Christ, you need to be outward looking.
You need to touch others as Christ did.
The question that’s fair to ask you
today: Do you go about your normal day thinking
about your problems, your relationships, your possessions and your
feelings? Are you all about you or are
you about serving God’s people? Do
something today to get the focus off of yourself. The healthiest
people I know spiritually and
psychologically are those who are not inward looking all the time.
Nothing wrong with introspection; nothing wrong
with knowing yourself but it cannot become an end in itself. It
must lead to being outward looking as
well. Get involved. Visit someone who is sick. Help
someone in the ministry of the church in
the community. You know there were
saints who were very angry people. There
were saints who were fickle. There were
saints who were lazy. There were saints
who were disloyal at times. There were
saints who were jealous. There were
saints that were argumentative. Some of
us in Los Alamos have some hope. There
were saints who ate and drank too much.
Indeed there were saints who were mentally ill. But there is no
saint who was selfish. None.