The Life of the Saints as the Living Reading of God’s Word, All Saints Day, November 1, 2018

Fr. Roger J. Landry
American Bible Society Retreat and Pilgrimage
Giustiniano Hotel, Rome
All Saints Day 2018
November 1, 2018
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 points were attempted in the homily: 

• As we continue on our pilgrimage, today we are able to celebrate all those who have “finished the race,” “kept the faith” and received the “crown of righteousness.” Every pilgrimage is meant to help us on the pilgrimage of life and the saints we celebrate today — not merely the famous ones but all those, including the most humble, unknown and forgotten, including, we pray, those who passed on to us the treasure of the faith — are the alpine climbers of Mt. Everest who want to help us and show us how to follow in their footsteps to the summit of the celestial Jerusalem. They are the ones who longed to see God’s face, as we pray in the Psalm today, and now behold it. They are the beloved children of God who, as St. John foretells in the second reading, now are fully like God because they see him as he is. They are the great multitude who have “made themselves pure,” washing themselves in the “blood of the lamb,” and who now sing forever, “Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb,” and “Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, honor, power, and might be to our God.” Today as we celebrate them, we invoke their intercession, to help us live in such a way that one day we may rejoice with them forever and, in turn, be celebrated on this day by Christians for generations after us.
• We have been focusing during these days on the word of God and its power to save. There is a strong connection between sanctity and God’s holy word. St. Gregory the Great used to teach 1400 years ago, viva lectio est vita bonorum, that the life of the good (the saints) is a living reading of God’s word. We see the word of God most accurately when we see it enfleshed in those who have received it in faith and made it the key to their life. Pope Benedict focused on this connection ten years ago in his apostolic exhortation on the Word of God in the life and mission of the Church, Verbum Domini. He wrote, “The interpretation of sacred Scripture would remain incomplete were it not to include listening to those who have truly lived the word of God: namely, the saints. … The most profound interpretation of Scripture comes precisely from those who let themselves be shaped by the word of God through listening, reading and assiduous meditation. It is certainly not by chance that the great currents of spirituality in the Church’s history originated with an explicit reference to Scripture. I am thinking for example of Saint Anthony the Abbot, who was moved by hearing Christ’s words: ‘If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me’ (Mt 19:21). No less striking is the question posed by Saint Basil the Great in the Moralia: ‘What is the distinctive mark of faith? Full and unhesitating certainty that the words inspired by God are true … What is the distinctive mark of the faithful? Conforming their lives with the same complete certainty to the meaning of the words of Scripture, not daring to remove or add a single thing.’ Saint Benedict, in his Rule, refers to Scripture as ‘a most perfect norm for human life.’ Saint Francis of Assisi – we learn from Thomas of Celano – ‘upon hearing that the disciples of Christ must possess neither gold, nor silver nor money, nor carry a bag, nor bread, nor a staff for the journey, nor sandals nor two tunics … exulting in the Holy Spirit, immediately cried out: ‘This is what I want, this is what I ask for, this I long to do with all my heart!’ Saint Clare of Assisi shared fully in the experience of Saint Francis: ‘The form of life of the Order of Poor Sisters – she writes – is this: to observe the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ So too, Saint Dominic ‘everywhere showed himself to be a man of the Gospel, in word as in deed,’ and wanted his friars likewise to be ‘men of the Gospel.’ The Carmelite Saint Teresa of Avila, who in her writings constantly uses biblical images to explain her mystical experiences, says that Jesus himself revealed to her that ‘all the evil in the world is derived from not knowing clearly the truths of sacred Scripture.’  Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus discovered that love was her personal vocation by poring over the Scriptures, especially Chapters 12 and 13 of the First Letter to the Corinthians; the same saint describes the attraction of the Scriptures: ‘No sooner do I glance at the Gospel, but immediately I breathe in the fragrance of the life of Jesus and I know where to run.’ Every saint is like a ray of light streaming forth from the word of God: we can think of Saint Ignatius of Loyola in his search for truth and in his discernment of spirits; Saint John Bosco in his passion for the education of the young; Saint John Mary Vianney in his awareness of the grandeur of the priesthood as gift and task; Saint Pius of Pietrelcina in his serving as an instrument of divine mercy; Saint Josemaria Escrivá in his preaching of the universal call to holiness; Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, the missionary of God’s charity towards the poorest of the poor, and then the martyrs of Nazism and Communism, represented by Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), a Carmelite nun, and by Blessed Aloysius Stepinac, the Cardinal Archbishop of Zagreb. … holiness in the Church constitutes an interpretation of Scripture which cannot be overlooked. The Holy Spirit who inspired the sacred authors is the same Spirit who impels the saints to offer their lives for the Gospel. In striving to learn from their example, we set out on the sure way towards a living and effective hermeneutic of the word of God.”
  • 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.”
  • The world tells us we’re 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, “To be happy, you’ve got to have all your sexual fantasies fulfilled” and our culture promotes people like Hugh Hefner and promiscuous Hollywood vixens as those who have it made. 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 his grace and justification, for they will be filled.”
  • The world says, “You’re happy when you don’t start a fight, but finish it” and people from professional wrestlers, to boxers, to generals, to armchair or back-seat presidents shout “No mercy,” and “Make them never stop regretting getting on our bad side,” Jesus says “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy” and “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”
  • Our American culture increasingly says, “You’re happy when everyone considers you nice, when you don’t have an enemy in the world” 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 their reward will be the kingdom of heaven.These words about how the saints are those who are living, breathing interpreters of Sacred Scripture, help us to focus on today’s Gospel. Jesus doesn’t merely proclaim the Beatitudes but lives them, and he wants us to do more than just hear the beatitudes, but enflesh them. Living the Beatitudes is the path to eternal beatitude. They are the way to heaven, happiness and holiness. But it’s a choice we have to make in response to the gift of his word, because the path Jesus revealsstands in stark contrast to the path that the majority of people in the world believe will make us happy. Let’s listen to Jesus as if we’re hearing him for the first time and ask him for the courage and grace to pattern our life after what he teaches:
• Jesus’ words about the path to heaven present a constant challenge that demands a deep and abiding conversion of spirit, because so many, including so many of us Catholics, don’t really strive to live this way, don’t really stake our lives on what Jesus says, don’t really make the choices that will lead us to eternal blessedness. All Saints Day is an occasion for us to recognize the two voices competing for our hearts, the voice of the many blind guides calling us to follow them down various earthly dead ends and the voice of the Good Shepherd whispering to us to take his hand and he leads us through the dark valleys to the eternal verdant pastures where he seeks to rejoice with us forever. As St. John Paul II used to stress that the Lord calls blessed those whom the world generally regards as weak. He basically says to us, “Blessed are you who seem to be losers, because you are the real winners, who seem to be throwing away your lives compared to those who are obtaining fame, and property and power: Blessed are you, Jesus says, because the kingdom of heaven is yours!”
• “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for holiness.” Through the Eucharist in which Jesus comes to make us holy, together on this great feast day, surrounded at Mass by all the saints in heaven, that “great cloud of witnesses” (Heb 12:1) who are cheering us now on to victory, we ask the Lord help us have that hunger, to have that thirst, that desire for holiness, for living the beatitudes, for saying yes to Christ and no to the standards of the world, so that one day with all the saints we fête today we will indeed be filled in heaven forever. Together with St. Paul, all the saints together are shouting to us now, “This is God’s will for you: your sanctification!” (1Ths 4:3). May we will what God wills for us so that we might come to share their eternal joy!

The readings for today’s Solemnity were: