Reflections
for Sunday, November 1, 2009
This year the Solemnity of All Saints takes precedence over the Sunday
liturgy. This celebration honors all those who have died and are now with
the Lord. Traditionally we say it honors those who have already been
purified and are in the full presence of God's love. Tomorrow, on All
Souls' Day, we shall pray for those who have died and are in need of
purification.
For most of us, there is a question about what it means to be a saint. It
is a good question because often we think only of the extraordinary saints
who have been proclaimed saints by the Church. We have to be honest and
say that we do not know how all of this works but we know one thing: God
loves us and invites each one of us to be a saint. All we have to do is
try to be faithful to God's will in our lives and live with God's love. Of
course we will fail in these attempts but we can always get up and try
again. It is this loving God of ours who can accomplish this
transformation in us, but only if we keep trying to be faithful and
loving.
Our joy today is about having this inner longing to be like the saints - not
in some unreal way but in our desire to know and to serve the living God.
Each of us has his or her own way to holiness because God created each one
of us as a special gift of divine love. Part of living is to discover this
individual and unique gift of God's love in our life. Again, the only way
to do this is to try to be faithful and loving.
The first reading, from the Book of Revelation, tells us about the
uncountable numbers of saints. God chooses us and we must respond:
salvation comes from our God! Always the initiative of grace comes from
this God who loves us and invites us to share His life. If we are pure of
heart, it is because we are washed in the blood of the Lamb. Jesus dies
for us and His blood, his love for us, washes us clean if we will only
accept Him.
The second reading, from the First Letter of Saint John, tells us that we
are God's children now. We don't know how it will be in the Kingdom that
will come but now we are God's children. The implication, of course, is
that we shall be so much more than we are now. We shall be like Him. We
shall be pure just as He is pure.
The Gospel gives us the beatitudes. These are ways of following the Lord.
We don't have to think that we must live each beatitude. Rather, we will
know in each situation what we must do if we are living in the Spirit.
There is so much to be thankful for. God is not setting out to trip us up
and make impossible conditions for the Kingdom of Heaven. Rather God is
telling us that the road to heaven is doing His will and letting go of our
own. We will suffer - this is always a condition of the Kingdom. We suffer
because we must let go of all that we might prefer to God's will. Most of
us get caught up in pleasures of one type or the other; we get caught up in
judging others; we find ourselves attached to what we want to do rather
than to seeking God's will. We suffer when we begin to choose what God
wants.
When we love someone or something, we are quite willing to suffer for a
cause or for a person. As we come deeper into the love of God, we are more
willing to suffer everything so that we can live in that Divine Presence
more and more. The canonized saints teach us this but the example of all
those who seek God in humility and in the everyday awareness of their
failures also speaks eloquently of the love of God growing through
suffering. May the saints in heaven intercede for us today that we may
walk in their paths and choose to follow our Lord.
Readings of the day:
First Reading:
Second Reading:
Gospel:
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Reflections are available for the following Sundays:
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