Communion of Saints

Dear Subscribers –

Below is a homily I gave on November 1^st for All Saints Day. Considering the last several blogs I have written about how we need to improve ourselves, I believe this falls into that same category, and so I offer it to you as this weekend’s blog. I hope you feel the same way.

Deacon Jim Merle

 

“The only real sadness in life,

is not to become a saint” and

the loss of eternal life.

The choice is ours.

I hope we make the correct one!

The above italicized headline portion was written by a French Catholic author, Leon Bloy in 1897 in his book entitled: “The Woman Who Was Poor.”  It is a catalyst, I believe for us, baptized Catholics, to begin to question where we are at in our relationship with Christ as we follow a path for everlasting life.

On November 1^st we celebrated All Saints Day, a holy day of obligation. This began in the fourth century to honor baptized Roman Catholics who were martyred for their faith belief in the month of May or after Pentecost or Easter. As time went on all types of Christian faiths in the known world celebrated not only martyrs, but any baptized believers who modeled their lives after Christ. In 835, Pope Gregory IV and the bishops of his curia settled on November 1^st and since then that has been the date used by Catholics and Christians in the west.

The most difficult aspect of this is how do we identify ourselves as saintly. One response might be that we are baptized and practicing our faith by going to Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation and attending Reconciliation. In other words, we are practicing a sacramental life.

But is that enough for us to join the Communion of Saints in heaven?

If we read St. Paul’s basic teaching in his Letter to the Galatians, we might not be as sure. In Chapter 2, verses 19 and 20 he writes:

 

“I have been crucified with Christ, and the life I live now is not my own; Christ is living in me. I still live my human life, but it is a life of faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

 

Our Catechism of the Catholic Church looks at the Communion of Saints as us finding our deepest selves by totally surrendering our lives to Jesus so we can be in service to others as He was to us when He walked on earth.

 

In doing so, we need to balance our lives by putting aside our priority of amassing wealth, becoming powerful and/or garnering fame. That is not who Christ wants us to be. We need to strive to live a life filled with God’s grace so that we are always in relationship with Him and to avoid sin.

God created us out of His love to become saints in heaven by helping them to choose to live a life of sanctifying grace. In St. Matthew’s Gospel on the Beatitudes, Chapter 5:3-12a, it gives us a life plan to change and be more like Christ and the saints in heaven.

Take this week to find a saint who encapsulates many of the characteristics we have. Read about him or her to realize that just as we have faults, so did they. But they worked at overcoming those obstacles. They made choices to follow the way of Christ by being more active in their prayer life, reading scripture and living a sacramental life beyond what is required in reaching out to the impoverished, maligned and disenfranchised.

Will it be easy? Probably not! But the alternative is living the only real sadness in life: Not becoming a saint and losing eternal salvation. The choice is ours. I hope we make the correct one!