Following the Saints on The Highway to Heaven, All Saints Day, November 1, 2024

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan
All Saints Day 2024
November 1, 2024
Rev 7:2-4.9-14, Ps 24, 1 Jn 3:1-3, Mt 5:1-12

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:

The following text guided the homily: 

• Today on this great solemnity, we first celebrate the saints. We celebrate the great and famous saints we know about, like the saints whose images and intercession surround us in this beautiful Church: Our Lady, St. Bernadette, St. John the Baptist, St. Louis de France, St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Luke, St. John, St. Anne, St. Anthony of Padua, St. Therese, St. Joseph and St. Joan of Arc. We celebrate also the countless quiet saints, those whom Pope Francis calls the “saints next door,” among whom we pray are numbered those we have known who passed on to us the gift of the faith, who died in the love of the Lord and now live in His love. The saints are the multitude who have “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb,” as we heard in today’s first reading, and brought those white baptismal garments “unstained into the everlasting life of heaven,” like they were instructed to do on the day of their baptism. These are the “great multitude that no one could count, from every nation,” who have not just been called “children of God” through baptism, as St. John told us in today’s second reading, but have lived as children of God throughout their lives, seeking to love God with all their mind, heart, soul and strength and to love their neighbor as Christ loved them. They are the ones who, as we prayed in the Psalm, have longed to see God’s face, whose hands were sinless, whose heart was pure, whose desires were not for vain things but for the things of God. These are the ones who have ascended “the mountain of the Lord,” the eternal Jerusalem, and who “stand in his holy place.” These are the ones who are singing today in that holy place the beautiful endless song glimpsed in the passage from Revelation, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
• But All Saints Day is not just about celebrating those who have lived truly successful lives, who have received and responded to the love of God and made the eternal Hall of Fame. It’s also meant, in having us focus on them, to spur us to imitate them so that one day November 1 will in the future be our day, too. As the ancient black spiritual intones, “O Lord, I want to be in that number when the saints go marching in.” St. John Paul II reminded us as we began the third Christian millennium that everything the Church does is meant to help us become holy, to help us respond to what the Second Vatican Council called the “universal call to holiness.” St. John Paul II wrote, “Since Baptism is a true entry into the holiness of God through incorporation into Christ and the indwelling of his Spirit, it would be a contradiction to settle for a life of mediocrity, marked by a minimalist ethic and a shallow religiosity. To ask catechumens: ‘Do you wish to receive Baptism?’ means at the same time to ask them: ‘Do you wish to become holy?’ It means to set before them the radical nature of the Sermon on the Mount: ‘Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect’ (Mt 5:48).” He continued, “This ideal of perfection must not be misunderstood as if it involved some kind of extraordinary existence, possible only for a few ‘uncommon heroes’ of holiness. … The time has come to re-propose wholeheartedly to everyone this high standard of ordinary Christian living: the whole life of the Christian community … must lead in this direction.” On All Saints Day each year the Church indeed reproposes wholeheartedly this high standard of the Christian life, that God calls us not to mediocrity, or minimalism, or shallowness, but to the perfection of love. All Saints Day is meant to inspire us to will the means to that end, to choose the narrow road that leads to life, and to invoke the powerful intercession of the saints so that we will indeed be among the great multitude in white garments who will ascend the Lord’s mountain and fulfill their dignity made in the image and likeness of God who is holy, holy, holy.
• Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel help us to focus on the high standard of ordinary Christian life. In the beatitudes, Jesus shows us his path, he reveals to us the way to holiness in day to day existence, and wants to help us to choose it. This path that Jesus describes stands in stark contrast to the road that most of the people in the world, including most students at Columbia, believe will lead to human fulfillment. But they really are the path to happiness, holiness and heaven. Let’s ask Jesus help to listen to him with faith and help us to make the choice to live by the way of holiness he reveals.
• The world tells us that to be happy, we have to be rich. Jesus says, rather, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they will inherit the kingdom of heaven.” Which path we will choose? The world tells us we’ll be happy when we don’t have a concern in the world. Jesus says, on the other hand, “Blessed are those” who are so concerned with others that “they mourn” over their own and others’ miseries, “for they will be comforted” by him eternally. Worldly know-it-alls say, “You have to be strong and powerful to be happy.” Jesus, in contrast, retorts, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” The spiritually worldly shout increasingly more each day that to be happy, we have to have all our sexual fantasies fulfilled. Jesus, however, says “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.” The world preaches, “You’re happy when you accept yourself,” and espouses an “I’m okay, you’re okay,” brand of moral relativism. Jesus says, though, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for holiness for they will be filled.” The world says, “You’re happy when you don’t start a fight, but finish it,” and lives by the philosophy of might-makes-right in both interpersonal and international contexts, but Jesus says “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy” and “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” And our culture increasingly declares, “You’re happy when everyone considers you nice, when you don’t have an enemy in the world,” while Jesus says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake” and “Blessed are you when people revile you, persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account,” for your reward will be the kingdom of heaven. Jesus makes plain for us the path to holiness. It’s the path he himself took. But it’s a path few people choose to take. Today Jesus is calling us to follow him on that path, and all the saints are praying for us to have the trust and courage to do so.
• Today I’d like to focus on one young person who did. Next year, he will become the first millennial saint. His name is Blessed Carlo Acutis, who was born in London in 1991, grew up in Milan, lived life with great enthusiasm, had scores of friends, dressed in jeans and sneakers, played soccer and Pokémon, and loved computers and his dogs. He came from a home that didn’t practice the faith, but thanks to the prayers of a grandmother, the good example of a Polish nanny, and the good fortune of going to a Catholic school, he discovered as a young boy that, to his astonishment, Jesus Christ is truly with us in the Eucharist. From that point until his death of leukemia at 15, he sought to unite his entire life to Jesus in the Eucharist, going to daily Mass, trying to bring his friends to daily Mass, and even learning coding and web design so that he could build a website on Eucharistic miracles to help young people across the globe come to experience the treasure of the Eucharist, too. Four months ago today, Pope Francis announced that he would canonize Carlo during the Jubilee of Hope in 2025, at a date still to be announced.
• There’s so much that one could say about soon-to-be-Saint Carlo, but I want to focus on the way he choose to follow Jesus on the path to holiness, even from a young age, and sought to help others to do so, too. He wrote in his diary soon after his first Communion at the age of 7, “My goal is to get to heaven.” He added, “Our goal must be the infinite, not the finite. The infinite is our homeland. Heaven has been waiting for us forever.” That impacted his prayer. He said, “The only thing we have to ask God for in prayer is the desire to be holy,” and God clearly heard that prayer. When he began to teach Catechism at the age of 11 to first graders, he made for them a “Program of Life” with eight priorities that he urged them to live. The first was: “Becoming a saint — You have to want this with all your heart, and if you don’t desire it, you have to pray for it constantly to God.” All the other practices he counseled — daily Mass and Communion, the Rosary, reading the Bible, adoration, weekly confession, sacrifices, and trust in one’s Guardian Angel — all were geared toward fulfilling this desire for holiness. He was super clear that holiness is something we shouldn’t put off until we’re much older, but should be a consuming hunger even in our youth. He counseled a friend, “To have a long life doesn’t mean this is a good thing. One can live a very long time and live badly. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” That’s led to one of his most celebrated sayings. “All of us,” he stressed, “are born as originals, but most of us die as photocopies.” Pope Francis, reflecting on those words, said in his 2018 exhortation to young people, “Carlo said, ‘Everyone is born as an original, but many people end up dying as photocopies.’ Don’t let that happen to you! … Dare to be more! … You can become what God your Creator knows you are, if only you realize that you are called to something greater. Ask the help of the Holy Spirit and confidently aim for the great goal of holiness. In this way, you will not be a photocopy. You will be fully yourself.” Carlo himself stated, “God has written for each of us a unique and unrepeatable story — but he has left us free to write the end of the story.” Carlo is praying for that ending to be communion with all the saints in heaven, by choosing to follow Jesus on the road that leads to eternal life.
• The greatest means we have to grow in holiness is the food of the saints, which is Jesus Christ in Holy Communion. Carlo Acutis called the Eucharist, “My highway to heaven.” When we receive Jesus well, we enter into communion with him who is holy, holy, holy, as he seeks to sanctify us from the inside out. The Eucharist is by far the most important means to become holy. Worshipping Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, inside of us after Holy Communion and outside of us in adoration, is the best means to prepare us for what the saints now eternally enjoy. Let us ask the Lord as we get ready to receive him to stir up in us a ravenous hunger and insatiable thirst for holiness, so that we might resolve with all our hearts to live by Jesus’ high standards of ordinary Christian living, and, through the Eucharist, speed along the highway to heaven to that place where Blessed Carlo and all the angels and saints are praying for us and waiting for us.

The readings for today’s Mass were: 

After this I had a vision of a great multitude,
which no one could count,
from every nation, race, people, and tongue.
They stood before the throne and before the Lamb,
wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.
They cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne,
and from the Lamb.”

All the angels stood around the throne
and around the elders and the four living creatures.
They prostrated themselves before the throne,
worshiped God, and exclaimed:

“Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving,
honor, power, and might
be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”

Then one of the elders spoke up and said to me,
“Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?”
I said to him, “My lord, you are the one who knows.”
He said to me,
“These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress;
they have washed their robes
and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb.”

“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.”

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