I realize a lot of you will not be able to be at Mass tomorrow on the Feast of All Saints, so I thought I would share a reflection of All Saints with you.
Phyllis McGinley is a modern American poet. She wrote a book called Saint Watching. In it she says:
“When I was seven years old, I wanted to be a tight-rope dancer and broke my collarbone practicing on a child’s-size high wire. At twelve, I planned to become an international spy. At fifteen, my ambition was the stage. Now in my sensible declining years, I would give anything…..to be a saint.”
As we celebrate the Feast of All Saints, we are reminded that every one of us—without exception—is called to be a saint. Not one of us in this church today is called to be anything less than a saint.
This poses a knotty question: What is the best way to become a saint in 2010?
Is it to do what St. Anthony did in the fourth century: turn our backs on the pleasures of this world and live apart from society?
Is it to do what St. Francis did in the thirteenth century: turn our backs on material wealth and preach the Gospel wherever we can find a crowd and a soapbox?
Or is it to do something like St. Elizabeth Seton did in the nineteenth century: raise a family and spend the rest of our lives working with societies sick and needy?
The answer to these questions is no. And the reason that its no is obvious.
You don’t become a saint by doing what God made somebody else to do. You become a saint by doing what God made you do.
Practically speaking, this means that if you are a parent at this moment in your life, that’s exactly the way God intends you to become a saint: by being the best parent you can be – not perfect – just the best.
And, practically speaking, if you are a student at this moment in your life, that’s exactly the way God intends you to become a saint: by being the best student you can be.
Or, if you are an elderly couple or single person at this moment in your life, that’s exactly the way God intends you to become a saint: by being the best elderly couple or best single person you can be.
Let me illustrate what I mean with an example. Some years ago, an elderly couple lived on a large corner lot near an elementary school.
The children from the school had the habit of cutting across the corner of their lawn, wearing an ugly path through it. At first this merely annoyed the couple, but after a while it angered them. The couple realized that something had to be done. The situation was poisoning their attitude toward the children and destroying their peace of mind. The couple hit upon a solution. First they put crushed gravel on the path. Then they lined it with flowers. After that they set a bench along the path. On afternoons when school let out, the couple sat on the bench and greeted the children as they passed by.
The response of the children was amazing. They stopped and thanked the couple for the path. They even asked the names of the flowers and sometimes, sat down to talk to the couple. In short, the couple turned an unhappy situation into a happy one.
That charming little story is also a beautiful illustration of what Jesus meant in today’s gospel when he said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” It means to turn a potentially angry situation into a delightfully happy one.
And that leads us to our final point.
If you are still in doubt about what it means to be a saint in today’s world, reread the Beatitudes in today’s gospel. The Beatitudes spell out in simple terms the guidelines that we should use to live our lives. And if we live out these guidelines, as the elderly couple did, Jesus will someday say to us what he said to the people of his time in the Sermon on the Mount:
“Blessed are you, the kingdom of God is yours!”
Archive for October, 2010
What Is The Best Way To Become A Saint 10-31-2010
Sunday, October 31st, 2010God Needs Each One Of Us 10-24-2010
Sunday, October 24th, 2010I would like to do a little replay of this Gospel to understand it better. I would like the people on the right side of the church to be sinners and the people on the left side to be Pharisees. I am going to tell a story, the gospel story again, using different words. When I ask you to stand, one side at a time, please stand.
One time Jesus told this story about those who considered themselves to be better than anyone else and were always comparing themselves to everyone. One time two people came to the church to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other was a public sinner. The Pharisee came to the front of the church, genuflected and then prayed to God this way (will everyone on this side of the church please stand today in this play you are the Pharisees). The Pharisees prayed in this way, “O Lord I give you thanks that I am not like everyone else. I give you thanks that I am a Catholic, that I come to Mass on Sunday, and that I am better than others. I give you thanks that I am a registered member and I am better than others. Especially I give you thanks that I am better than those sinners on the other side of the church. (Now look at those sinners on the other side of the church.) Pharisees please sit down.
Time for the sinners to pray (will everyone on this side of the church please stand), without even raising their eyes to heaven they said, “Lord have mercy on me, a sinner.” Jesus said, “It is a shame, but the Pharisees return to their homes without grace while the sinners return to their homes full of God’s mercy.” Please be seated.
A question for us is: what was the sin of the Pharisees? There are probably good people, they are involved in the church, they go to meetings, they abstain from serious sin, but they do one thing that is very wrong. The sin they committed is that they compared themselves to others.
In a large family sorrows and heartbreak come when the children begin comparing themselves to one another. One says, “I am better than the rest of my brothers and sisters.” Or one says, “I am not as good as my brothers and sisters.” God loves and respects each one of us. God does not compare people one to another, and in the parable today Jesus asks us not to compare ourselves. Problems come when religion says, “my religion is better. I am better than you are because I belong to this religion.”
On my hand there are five fingers. Each finger is a different shape.
Each finger has different strengths. Each finger has a different size. My thumb is stronger than my little finger. One of my fingers is longer than the others, yet every finger is important on my hand. What foolishness, if my fingers have a fight amongst themselves, comparing themselves to each other and trying to decide who is better or who is worse. All of them are needed. We are all fingers on God’s hand. God needs each one of us. Each person has gifts and weaknesses. Some of the fingers on God’s hands are full of sins and troubles. Some of the fingers on God’s hands might have diseases, but each finger is important and God loves each finger equally.
We are all supposed to fit together. Let us respect each other, let us accept each other and let us not give in to the temptation of comparing ourselves to one another.
I close with this story about a person who thought he was better than anyone else.
A modern-day, self-righteous, self-appointed saint went to the doctor for a check-up. “I’m not feeling very well these days,” he said. “Please examine me thoroughly, and tell me what’s wrong.” Whereupon, the doctor began with a few questions…
“Do you drink a lot?”
“No, I never touch the stuff. I’m a teetotaler, and proud of it.”
“Do you smoke?”
“No. I’ve never gone near tobacco, and I’m proud of it.”
“What about your sleeping habits?”
“I go to bed early. While others are out carousing late at night, I’m in bed by 10:30, and I’m proud of it.”
“Well, what is your complaint at this time?”
“I have terrible pains in my head.”
“Aha! That’s your trouble. Your halo is on too tight!”
Intimacy With God 10-17-2010 Deacon Patrick Conway
Sunday, October 17th, 2010And elderly couple, John and Mary, was driving through their small town. They stopped at a red light behind another car. In the car ahead of them was a young couple – much younger, and things were a little different in that car. The young man was driving and the young woman was sitting right next to him, snuggled up close. They were even smooching!
Mary looked longingly at the young couple and sighed. She remembered the days when she and John had been just like that young couple. She looked over at John and just shook her head. Finally she said, “John, you see that young couple up ahead? Why don’t we do that anymore?”
John looked over at his wife, smiled and said, “Well, Mary, I haven’t moved!”
There are many images in the Bible that the prophets and evangelists and Jesus used to describe the relationship between God and his people: vine and branches, vine grower and vine, shepherd and sheep, king and subjects. But the ultimate one is that of the Bridegroom and his Bride.
The intimacy between a bridegroom and bride is the closest thing that God could find in our human experience to describe what is possible between us and God. It describes the surprising, almost shocking intimacy that God desires with us. Isaiah wrote, “As a young man marries a virgin, so shall your builder marry you; and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride so shall your God rejoice in you.” (Is. 62:5)
Jesus is the Bridegroom and we the Church are his bride. Now that can seem a little weird for us guys – but relax! It’s just a metaphor! Jesus is just telling us that what he really wants is intimacy with us. It’s a unique intimacy that goes even beyond that which a husband and wife experience, but marriage is still the closest thing that we have in human relationships.
Now back to John and Mary, still sitting at the stoplight. We have to ask ourselves, is our intimacy with God like the first couple, snuggled up close, or more like John and Mary? Are we in the same car, sharing life with God, but just not that close, maybe even alienated?
Well, like John, God hasn’t moved! We are as close to God as we choose to be, and sometimes that’s not too close.
But think about that: we are as close to God as we choose to be. God is ready to be fully intimate with us, “as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride…”, but we avoid intimacy. We allow things to come between us and God, especially lies, like “God is angry with me, God doesn’t like me, I’m not good enough for God, my sins disqualify me.” We allow things to pull us away from God, like our many addictions – alcohol, drugs, television, busyness, wrong relationships, possessions.
A relationship with God is not really possible without prayer. And certainly intimacy with God won’t happen without it. Prayer is our movement toward God. It’s when we choose to move away from other things and slide over there and snuggle up with God.
There are many types of prayer, but basically they all boil down to three kinds: talking to God, listening to God, and being with God – just like intimate couples do. In an intimate relationship we spend time talking to our partner, sharing both the big things and the little things. And we spend time listening to our partner, getting to know them more and more deeply as we hear what’s going on in them. And sometimes we move beyond words and simply commune in being together in a very rich and profound silence.
We should be in the habit of talking to God throughout the day, noticing all the little and big blessings that God is giving us, and thanking God for them. When we’re facing some difficulty and we feel we’re going to fail, we can simply ask God to help us. This is especially important when we have to be with people that we don’t like to be around or when we have to do things that we don’t want to do.
In our Gospel today Jesus also tells us that we should be constantly asking God for justice for those who suffer injustice. He promises us that God will answer our prayers for justice. Justice – making things right for people – is what God is all about. Our prayers for justice bring us closer to the heart of God.
And we should often simply rest in God, God, as St. Paul writes, “in whom we live and move and have our being.” When we find ourselves with a few moments, we can choose to spend them in communion with God.
You know, one of the reasons that we come to mass is to “go to communion.” That’s an interesting expression, isn’t it? To go to communion. We choose to move towards communion with God. It’s a wonderful thing, but sometimes we’re not very conscious about it. We may go through the motions of going to communion, but our hearts and minds are far from communion with God. Perhaps we can practice being more conscious about it, beginning today. And we can go to spiritual communion with God whenever we want, whenever we choose to open our heart and mind to God and move toward him.
Intimacy, whether it’s with God or with another human being, doesn’t happen automatically. It requires desire, commitment, consistency, effort and sacrifice. It also requires mutuality – both people have to want it and work at it. While this doesn’t always work out with other human beings, it can always work out with God if we want it to, because God always wants it to.
Finally, in exhorting us to pray and never give up praying, Jesus mentions faith: “But when the Son of Man returns, will he find faith on earth?” Jesus knows that faith cannot exist without prayer. Without prayer and the intimacy that comes from consistent prayer, faith will weaken, and even die. So Jesus exhorts us to pray, that our faith in him will be strong and grow even stronger. Then we will be able to assure him with confidence: “Yes, Lord. When you return, you will find faith, for you will find me.”
So let us recommit ourselves to the practices of daily prayer, so that we may enjoy the intimacy with God that God so desires with us.
