From Fr. Jude Botelho:
The first reading from the Book of Revelation was written during the time of the persecution by the Roman Empire, to strengthen the faith of the Christians. The Apocalypse sees the clash with the Roman Empire as the clash between Christ and Satan. There can be only one result of such an encounter, the victory of Christ and his followers. The victory of Christ is also the victory of all those who have believed in Him. All these holy people are sealed by the mark of the Lamb and will be protected by him. We celebrate their victory and the promise they hold out for us who try to follow in their footsteps.
The Repairmen and Women
It was a Saturday afternoon. The streets were full of people going about their business. But all of a sudden the peace was shattered as some hooligans coming home from a football match went on a rampage. They began to fight with rival fans, missiles were thrown and with a loud shattering noise they knocked in the front window of a large store. Bedlam broke loose. People panicked and began to scream, but before the police arrived the hooligans had melted in the crowd. Slowly the panic subsided and things gradually got back to normal. About an hour later two repairmen arrived on the scene. The first thing they did was sweep up the broken glass, then they tackled the window itself. They removed all the remaining jagged pieces, then carefully measured the window and ordered it from their office. It arrived duly and they proceeded to put it in. They knew their job and did it thoroughly. All the time they worked on the window not a single passerby stopped to watch them. The next day’s papers headlines were about the hooligans who had smashed the window. They even had photos of the broken window. But there was not a single line about the two repairmen who had done such a splendid job that by the end of the day everything was back to normal. We live in a world where, thanks largely to the mass media, the ‘window-breakers’ get all the attention and the ‘repairmen’ are frequently ignored. The Church sets aside one day to honour all the ‘repairmen’ and ‘repair-women’ who do such an excellent job, and who do it quietly and anonymously. We call it All Saints Day.
Flor McCarthy in ‘Sunday and Holy Day Liturgies’
In today’s gospel Jesus focuses on the qualities he wishes to see in his disciples, qualities that are exemplified in the lives of the saints. A glance at the beatitudes shows that they are a complete reversal of conventional values and standards. Worldly wisdom says “Blessed are the rich for they can have everything they want.” But Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” The world says, “Blessed are those who live it up.” But Jesus says, “Blessed are those who mourn.” It is only those who are capable of loving who are capable of true mourning. The world says, “Blessed are those who are tough.” But Jesus says, “Blessed are those who are gentle.” Gentleness is not weakness, but a form of true strength. The world says “Blessed are those who hunger for power, status and fame.” But Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger for justice and what is right.” To live rightly is what life is all about. The world says, “Blessed are those who show no mercy and give no quarter.” But Jesus says, “Blessed are the merciful.” Happy are we who make allowances for the weaknesses of others, and whose greatness is in their ability to forgive. The world says, “Happy are those who have clean fingernails, clean teeth and clean skin!” But Jesus says, “Blessed are those who have clean hearts.” The world says, “Blessed are the fighters and the bullies.” But Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” Happy are those who spread understanding and bring reconciliation, they are true children of God. The world says, “Blessed are those who lie and cheat and get away with it.” But Jesus says, “Blessed are those who make a stand for what is right, no matter what the cost.” The beatitudes are ultimately the attitudes of Christ and the saints which all of us are meant to have in our daily life.
“Oh God! Make me like Joe”
Joe was a drunk who was miraculously converted at a Bowery mission. Prior to his conversion, he had gained the reputation of being a dirty wino for whom there was no hope, only a miserable existence in the ghetto. But following his conversion to a new life with God, everything changed. Joe became the most caring person that anyone associated with the mission had ever known. Joe spent his days and nights hanging out at the mission, doing whatever needed to be done. There was never anything that he was asked to do that he considered beneath him. Whether it was cleaning up the vomit left by some violently sick alcoholic or scrubbing toilets after careless men left the men’s room filthy, Joe did what was asked with a smile on his face and a seeming gratitude for the chance to help. He could be counted on to feed feeble men, who wandered off the street and into the mission, and to undress and tuck into bed men who were too out of it to take care of themselves. One evening, when the director of the mission was delivering his evening evangelistic message to the usual crowd of still and sullen men with drooped heads, there was one man who looked up, came down the aisle to the altar, and knelt to pray, crying out for God to help him to change. The repentant drunk kept shouting, “Oh God! Make me like Joe! Make me like Joe! Make me like Joe! Make me like Joe!” The director of the mission leaned over and said to the man, “Son, I think it would be better if you prayed, ‘Make me like Jesus.’” The man looked up at the director with a quizzical expression on his face and asked, “Is he like Joe?”
Tony Campolo in ‘Everything you’ve heard is wrong!’
God’s Noblest Creation –The Saints
In the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D. C., under the commanding mosaic of Christ in glory, are six pillars. Atop each is a statue of a Saint. There, side by side, are the figures of a queen (St Elizabeth), a vagrant (St Benedict Joseph Labre), a cook (St Zita), a doorman (St Conrad), a Mystic (St Gemma), and a parish priest (St John Vianney). For some of them, the road to holiness was easy, for others very hard. Some saints had gifts of great natural talent; others seemed devoid of it. Some saints were fiery, others gentle. Some were gregarious, others loners. There are old saints (such as St Anthony of the Desert, who lived to be 105) and young saints (such as Aloysius Gonzaga and Maria Goretti). There were brilliant saints (such as Thomas Aquinas) and dense saints (such as Joseph Cupertino). There were tough saints (such as Teresa of Avila) and emotional saints (such as Therese of Lisieux). There were innocent saints (such as Dominic Savio) and reformed sinners who became saints (such as Augustine). There are also saints who did not always agree with each other, such as Jerome and Augustine, who had a running battle of words for years. Nevertheless, the saints belong together. They all responded to God’s invitation to sainthood commemorated in today’s liturgy.
Harold Buetow in ‘God Still Speaks –Listen!’
Are you God?
Shortly after World War II, early one chilly morning, an American soldier was making his way back to the barracks in London. As he turned the corner in his jeep, he spotted a little lad with his nose pressed to the window of a pastry shop. The hungry boy stared in silence, watching every move. The soldier stopped, got out, and walked quietly over to where the little fellow was standing. Through the steamed-up window he could see the mouth-watering morsels as they were being pulled from the oven, piping hot. The boy salivated and released a slight groan as he watched the cook place them onto the glass enclosed counter ever so carefully. The soldier’s heart went out to the nameless orphan as he stood beside him. “Son…would you like some of those?” The boy was startled. “Oh, yeah…I would!” The American stepped inside and bought a dozen, put them in a bag, and walked back to where the lad was standing in the foggy cold of the London morning. He smiled, held out the bag, and said: “Here you are.” As he turned to walk away, he felt a tug on his coat. He looked back and heard the child ask quietly, “Mister… are you God?”
Charles Swindoll in ‘Improving Your Serve’
In their footsteps
St Jerome says in his writings that as a boy he and his friends used to play in the catacombs. Centuries after St Jerome, Roman boys still played in the catacombs. One day a group of boys was wandering through the maze of tunnels. Suddenly their only flashlight gave out. The boys were trapped in total darkness with no idea of the way out. They were on the verge of panic when one boy felt a smooth groove in the rock floor of the tunnel. It turned out to be a path that had been worn smooth by the feet of thousands of Christians in the days of the Roman persecutions. The boys followed in the footsteps of these saints of old and found their way out of the darkness into sunlight and safety.
Mark Link in ‘Sunday Homilies’
All that is necessary to be a saint
Thomas Merton is one of the most influential American Catholic authors of the twentieth century. Shortly after he converted to Catholicism in the late 1930s, Thomas Merton was walking down the streets of New York with a friend, Robert Lax. Lax was Jewish, and he asked Thomas what he wanted to be, now that he was Catholic. “I don’t know.” Merton replied, adding simply that he wanted to be a good Catholic. Lax stopped him in his tracks. “What you should say,” he told him, “is that you want to be a saint!” Merton was dumbfounded. “How do you expect me to be a saint?” Merton asked him. Lax said: “All that is necessary to be a saint is to want to be one. Don’t you believe that God will make you what He created you to be, if you consent to let him do it? All you have is to desire it.” Thomas Merton knew his friend was right.
John Payappilly in ‘The Table of the Word’
*****
I am reminded of a story about Theodore Roosevelt. During one of his political campaigns, a delegation called on him at his home in Oyster Bay, Long Island. The President met them with his coat off and his sleeves rolled up.
"Ah, gentlemen," he said, "come down to the barn and we will talk while I do some work."
At the barn, Roosevelt picked up a pitchfork and looked around for the hay. Then he called out, "John, where's all the hay?"
"Sorry, sir," John called down from the hayloft. "I ain't had time to toss it back down again after you pitched it up while the Iowa folks were here."
As we go to the polls this Tuesday I know whom I am going to vote for. Let me tell you who: I am going to vote hypocrisy out of office and humility in. I am going to vote greatness out and servanthood in. I am going to vote honor out and duty in. That's whom I am going to vote for and I wish it were that simple. Truth is, leadership, the way Jesus described it, is hard to find, even among the religious.
So what is it exactly that Jesus wants out of leaders and how do they get there. We will look at that in a moment. .
During the dark days of World War II, England had a great deal of difficulty keeping men in the coal mines. It was a thankless kind of job, totally lacking in any glory. Most chose to join the various military services. They desired something that could give them more social acceptance and recognition. Something was needed to motivate these men in the work that they were doing so that they would remain in the mines.
The first reading from the Book of Revelation was written during the time of the persecution by the Roman Empire, to strengthen the faith of the Christians. The Apocalypse sees the clash with the Roman Empire as the clash between Christ and Satan. There can be only one result of such an encounter, the victory of Christ and his followers. The victory of Christ is also the victory of all those who have believed in Him. All these holy people are sealed by the mark of the Lamb and will be protected by him. We celebrate their victory and the promise they hold out for us who try to follow in their footsteps.
The Repairmen and Women
It was a Saturday afternoon. The streets were full of people going about their business. But all of a sudden the peace was shattered as some hooligans coming home from a football match went on a rampage. They began to fight with rival fans, missiles were thrown and with a loud shattering noise they knocked in the front window of a large store. Bedlam broke loose. People panicked and began to scream, but before the police arrived the hooligans had melted in the crowd. Slowly the panic subsided and things gradually got back to normal. About an hour later two repairmen arrived on the scene. The first thing they did was sweep up the broken glass, then they tackled the window itself. They removed all the remaining jagged pieces, then carefully measured the window and ordered it from their office. It arrived duly and they proceeded to put it in. They knew their job and did it thoroughly. All the time they worked on the window not a single passerby stopped to watch them. The next day’s papers headlines were about the hooligans who had smashed the window. They even had photos of the broken window. But there was not a single line about the two repairmen who had done such a splendid job that by the end of the day everything was back to normal. We live in a world where, thanks largely to the mass media, the ‘window-breakers’ get all the attention and the ‘repairmen’ are frequently ignored. The Church sets aside one day to honour all the ‘repairmen’ and ‘repair-women’ who do such an excellent job, and who do it quietly and anonymously. We call it All Saints Day.
Flor McCarthy in ‘Sunday and Holy Day Liturgies’
In today’s gospel Jesus focuses on the qualities he wishes to see in his disciples, qualities that are exemplified in the lives of the saints. A glance at the beatitudes shows that they are a complete reversal of conventional values and standards. Worldly wisdom says “Blessed are the rich for they can have everything they want.” But Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” The world says, “Blessed are those who live it up.” But Jesus says, “Blessed are those who mourn.” It is only those who are capable of loving who are capable of true mourning. The world says, “Blessed are those who are tough.” But Jesus says, “Blessed are those who are gentle.” Gentleness is not weakness, but a form of true strength. The world says “Blessed are those who hunger for power, status and fame.” But Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger for justice and what is right.” To live rightly is what life is all about. The world says, “Blessed are those who show no mercy and give no quarter.” But Jesus says, “Blessed are the merciful.” Happy are we who make allowances for the weaknesses of others, and whose greatness is in their ability to forgive. The world says, “Happy are those who have clean fingernails, clean teeth and clean skin!” But Jesus says, “Blessed are those who have clean hearts.” The world says, “Blessed are the fighters and the bullies.” But Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” Happy are those who spread understanding and bring reconciliation, they are true children of God. The world says, “Blessed are those who lie and cheat and get away with it.” But Jesus says, “Blessed are those who make a stand for what is right, no matter what the cost.” The beatitudes are ultimately the attitudes of Christ and the saints which all of us are meant to have in our daily life.
“Oh God! Make me like Joe”
Joe was a drunk who was miraculously converted at a Bowery mission. Prior to his conversion, he had gained the reputation of being a dirty wino for whom there was no hope, only a miserable existence in the ghetto. But following his conversion to a new life with God, everything changed. Joe became the most caring person that anyone associated with the mission had ever known. Joe spent his days and nights hanging out at the mission, doing whatever needed to be done. There was never anything that he was asked to do that he considered beneath him. Whether it was cleaning up the vomit left by some violently sick alcoholic or scrubbing toilets after careless men left the men’s room filthy, Joe did what was asked with a smile on his face and a seeming gratitude for the chance to help. He could be counted on to feed feeble men, who wandered off the street and into the mission, and to undress and tuck into bed men who were too out of it to take care of themselves. One evening, when the director of the mission was delivering his evening evangelistic message to the usual crowd of still and sullen men with drooped heads, there was one man who looked up, came down the aisle to the altar, and knelt to pray, crying out for God to help him to change. The repentant drunk kept shouting, “Oh God! Make me like Joe! Make me like Joe! Make me like Joe! Make me like Joe!” The director of the mission leaned over and said to the man, “Son, I think it would be better if you prayed, ‘Make me like Jesus.’” The man looked up at the director with a quizzical expression on his face and asked, “Is he like Joe?”
Tony Campolo in ‘Everything you’ve heard is wrong!’
God’s Noblest Creation –The Saints
In the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D. C., under the commanding mosaic of Christ in glory, are six pillars. Atop each is a statue of a Saint. There, side by side, are the figures of a queen (St Elizabeth), a vagrant (St Benedict Joseph Labre), a cook (St Zita), a doorman (St Conrad), a Mystic (St Gemma), and a parish priest (St John Vianney). For some of them, the road to holiness was easy, for others very hard. Some saints had gifts of great natural talent; others seemed devoid of it. Some saints were fiery, others gentle. Some were gregarious, others loners. There are old saints (such as St Anthony of the Desert, who lived to be 105) and young saints (such as Aloysius Gonzaga and Maria Goretti). There were brilliant saints (such as Thomas Aquinas) and dense saints (such as Joseph Cupertino). There were tough saints (such as Teresa of Avila) and emotional saints (such as Therese of Lisieux). There were innocent saints (such as Dominic Savio) and reformed sinners who became saints (such as Augustine). There are also saints who did not always agree with each other, such as Jerome and Augustine, who had a running battle of words for years. Nevertheless, the saints belong together. They all responded to God’s invitation to sainthood commemorated in today’s liturgy.
Harold Buetow in ‘God Still Speaks –Listen!’
Are you God?
Shortly after World War II, early one chilly morning, an American soldier was making his way back to the barracks in London. As he turned the corner in his jeep, he spotted a little lad with his nose pressed to the window of a pastry shop. The hungry boy stared in silence, watching every move. The soldier stopped, got out, and walked quietly over to where the little fellow was standing. Through the steamed-up window he could see the mouth-watering morsels as they were being pulled from the oven, piping hot. The boy salivated and released a slight groan as he watched the cook place them onto the glass enclosed counter ever so carefully. The soldier’s heart went out to the nameless orphan as he stood beside him. “Son…would you like some of those?” The boy was startled. “Oh, yeah…I would!” The American stepped inside and bought a dozen, put them in a bag, and walked back to where the lad was standing in the foggy cold of the London morning. He smiled, held out the bag, and said: “Here you are.” As he turned to walk away, he felt a tug on his coat. He looked back and heard the child ask quietly, “Mister… are you God?”
Charles Swindoll in ‘Improving Your Serve’
In their footsteps
St Jerome says in his writings that as a boy he and his friends used to play in the catacombs. Centuries after St Jerome, Roman boys still played in the catacombs. One day a group of boys was wandering through the maze of tunnels. Suddenly their only flashlight gave out. The boys were trapped in total darkness with no idea of the way out. They were on the verge of panic when one boy felt a smooth groove in the rock floor of the tunnel. It turned out to be a path that had been worn smooth by the feet of thousands of Christians in the days of the Roman persecutions. The boys followed in the footsteps of these saints of old and found their way out of the darkness into sunlight and safety.
Mark Link in ‘Sunday Homilies’
All that is necessary to be a saint
Thomas Merton is one of the most influential American Catholic authors of the twentieth century. Shortly after he converted to Catholicism in the late 1930s, Thomas Merton was walking down the streets of New York with a friend, Robert Lax. Lax was Jewish, and he asked Thomas what he wanted to be, now that he was Catholic. “I don’t know.” Merton replied, adding simply that he wanted to be a good Catholic. Lax stopped him in his tracks. “What you should say,” he told him, “is that you want to be a saint!” Merton was dumbfounded. “How do you expect me to be a saint?” Merton asked him. Lax said: “All that is necessary to be a saint is to want to be one. Don’t you believe that God will make you what He created you to be, if you consent to let him do it? All you have is to desire it.” Thomas Merton knew his friend was right.
John Payappilly in ‘The Table of the Word’
*****
I am reminded of a story about Theodore Roosevelt. During one of his political campaigns, a delegation called on him at his home in Oyster Bay, Long Island. The President met them with his coat off and his sleeves rolled up.
"Ah, gentlemen," he said, "come down to the barn and we will talk while I do some work."
At the barn, Roosevelt picked up a pitchfork and looked around for the hay. Then he called out, "John, where's all the hay?"
"Sorry, sir," John called down from the hayloft. "I ain't had time to toss it back down again after you pitched it up while the Iowa folks were here."
As we go to the polls this Tuesday I know whom I am going to vote for. Let me tell you who: I am going to vote hypocrisy out of office and humility in. I am going to vote greatness out and servanthood in. I am going to vote honor out and duty in. That's whom I am going to vote for and I wish it were that simple. Truth is, leadership, the way Jesus described it, is hard to find, even among the religious.
So what is it exactly that Jesus wants out of leaders and how do they get there. We will look at that in a moment. .
___________________________
Halloween is the ultimate holiday of "pretending."
On Halloween we dress up and "pretend" to be someone or something other than ourselves.
On Halloween we "pretend" to believe that the people jumping out at us and scaring us in the "haunted houses" we paid $25 to get into are monsters and zombies.
On Halloween we happily "pretend" that the scariest stuff in life are those things that "go bump in the night."
On Halloween we revel in "pretend" bumps instead of bumping into the terrifying realities of evil and cruelty that appear on any street, in any office, at any school, in broad daylight, on any given day - and that's just a rundown of the terrors of the last two weeks.
Yesterday, the day after "All Hallows Eve," is known in the liturgical calendar as "All Saints Day." "All Saints" is a celebration and commemoration of those who were never about pretense, but who devoted their lives to expressing true faithfulness and genuine piety. The church lives, not by the majesty of its beliefs but by the manifestation of its manifold witness through the magnificence of its "communion of saints."
Who are these "all saints?" The "all saints" are all the everyday, ordinary men and women who live lives of humility and service in Jesus' name and for his sake. They never "dressed up" or "dressed down" in order to exhibit some "pretend" piety. They never paraded their piety in peacock plumage. Generation after generation of these "all saints" make up the great "Cloud of Witnesses" (the church had "The Cloud" before Microsoft) who make it possible for the historic Jesus of the first century to become the living Christ of the twenty-first century.
The community of "all saints" didn't need to play "pretend." Their lives witnessed to the living presence of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, who made them all into "transformers," transformers of lives, transformers of hopes, transformers of dreams, transformers of the world they lived in..
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Humility in Action
One of the best stories of humility I know is that of a man who arrived in 1953 at the Chicago railroad station to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. He stepped off the train, a tall man with bushy hair and a big mustache. As the cameras flashed and city officials approached with hands outstretched to meet him, he thanked them politely. Then he asked to be excused for a minute. He walked through the crowd to the side of an elderly black woman struggling with two large suitcases. He picked them up, smiled, and escorted her to the bus, helped her get on, and wished her a safe journey. Then Albert Schweitzer turned to the crowd and apologized for keeping them waiting. It is reported that one member of the reception committee told a reporter, "That's the first time I ever saw a sermon walking."
We've been given a great task - to live in harmony, to weep with the mournful, to laugh with the joyful, to not be conceited. Especially, we are called to be righteous, but not self-righteous. We are to be humble.
We've been given a great task - to live in harmony, to weep with the mournful, to laugh with the joyful, to not be conceited. Especially, we are called to be righteous, but not self-righteous. We are to be humble.
Roy T. Lloyd, Charades and Reality
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Admired the Peacock, but Loved the Duck
Carlton Van Ornum tells this story. A large crowd of people gathered near an enclosure in the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston as a peacock slowly spread his great tail and displayed its stunning plumage. The great bird stood erect and noble and strutted regally. Just then an old, dun-colored duck waddled slowly from the pond and passed between the proud peacock and the admiring crowd. Enraged, the peacock drove the duck back to the water. In a moment, the beautiful bird had become ugly with fierce anger. The plain and awkward duck, having returned to its natural habitat, was no longer unbecoming. In the water it swam and dived gracefully, unaware that many eyes were watching. The people who had admired the peacock loved the duck. Each of us was reminded of the dangers of pride, and that happiness comes from just being ourselves.
Jerry L. Schmalenberger, When Christians Quarrel, CSS Publishing Company
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Carlton Van Ornum tells this story. A large crowd of people gathered near an enclosure in the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston as a peacock slowly spread his great tail and displayed its stunning plumage. The great bird stood erect and noble and strutted regally. Just then an old, dun-colored duck waddled slowly from the pond and passed between the proud peacock and the admiring crowd. Enraged, the peacock drove the duck back to the water. In a moment, the beautiful bird had become ugly with fierce anger. The plain and awkward duck, having returned to its natural habitat, was no longer unbecoming. In the water it swam and dived gracefully, unaware that many eyes were watching. The people who had admired the peacock loved the duck. Each of us was reminded of the dangers of pride, and that happiness comes from just being ourselves.
Jerry L. Schmalenberger, When Christians Quarrel, CSS Publishing Company
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Jesus' Criticisms
Here is a list of Jesus' criticisms about religious leadership in his day:
They did not practice what they taught (hypocrisy).
They put heavy burdens on others but not themselves (legalism).
They sought and loved public recognition (pride).
Status, respect and titles were important to them (arrogance).
They locked people out of the kingdom (judgmental).
They established laws to benefit themselves (greed).
They neglected to emphasize justice and mercy (bias).
They were accomplices to silencing the prophets (oppressive).
They put heavy burdens on others but not themselves (legalism).
They sought and loved public recognition (pride).
Status, respect and titles were important to them (arrogance).
They locked people out of the kingdom (judgmental).
They established laws to benefit themselves (greed).
They neglected to emphasize justice and mercy (bias).
They were accomplices to silencing the prophets (oppressive).
George Johnson, Critical Decisions in Following Jesus, CSS Publishing Company.
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The Young Seminarian
A young seminary graduate came up to the lectern, very self-confident and immaculately dressed. He began to deliver his first sermon in his first church and the words simply would not come out. Finally he burst into tears and ended up leaving the platform obviously humbled.
There were two older ladies sitting in the front row and one remarked to the other, "If he'd come in like he went out, he would have gone out like he came in."
Jesus calls us to a real trust in God and to humble service in his church and world. The temptation is ever before us to exalt ourselves - to impress others, to make a name for ourselves. That was not how Jesus came, nor was it why he came.
Peter J. Blackburn, Humble Before God
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All Perfume, No Flowers
The brilliant behavioral scientist Gordon Allport spoke at Appleton Chapel at Harvard University about how a code of ethics, however highly approved, can be a hollow thing without something to back it up. Following the RULES of faith-as if that was all that was required-was likened by Dr. Allport to living on the perfume of an empty vase. It's possible to live, perhaps for a long time, on the perfume of an empty vase, but sooner or later one is thrust into a situation where there had better be some real flowers, not just the aroma, or one is lost.
In our Gospel we see the tragedy of being religious without being the real deal, of placing primary emphasis on outer conduct rather than on inner character. Those to whom Jesus speaks did not recognize their need to be changed. These people may talk a good fight of faith, but when they are forced to fall back upon their inner resources of faith, they discover that the tank is empty. Jesus says, "Don't imitate them for they don't practice what they teach." All perfume, no flowers.
Roy T. Lloyd, Charades and Reality
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In our Gospel we see the tragedy of being religious without being the real deal, of placing primary emphasis on outer conduct rather than on inner character. Those to whom Jesus speaks did not recognize their need to be changed. These people may talk a good fight of faith, but when they are forced to fall back upon their inner resources of faith, they discover that the tank is empty. Jesus says, "Don't imitate them for they don't practice what they teach." All perfume, no flowers.
Roy T. Lloyd, Charades and Reality
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Hospitality Outdoes Erudition
One pastor tells of his excitement of bringing into parish membership a university professor. The pastor endeavored to prepare and to deliver better sermons from the pulpit, as this prospective member continued to attend worship. Later, while reflecting with the professor after he joined the parish, the pastor found that the professor's joining had less to do with the sermons he heard and more to do with an elderly woman who consistently made him feel so welcomed and valued. That was what moved him into Christian community. Imagine that: the Christian spirit of hospitality outdid erudition. Servanthood over showmanship wins hearts in many, many places.
Joseph M. Freeman, Where Gratitude Abounds, CSS Publishing Company, Inc.
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The danger of pride is that it feeds on goodness.
Traditional
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I Am the Path
The church in the world is a lot like the story that E. Stanley Jones tells of the missionary in the jungle. He got lost with nothing around him but bush and a few cleared places. He finally found a small village and asked one of the natives if he could lead him out of the jungle. The native said he could. "All right," the missionary said, "Show me the way." They walked for hours through dense brush hacking their way through unmarked jungle. The missionary began to worry and said, "Are you quite sure this is the way? Where is the path?" The native said. "Bwana, in this place there is no path. I am the path."
Our path out of the jungle of this world is God in Christ. We may have some Rabbis, Masters, Father's, Teachers, and Reverends, but we are all like the missionary. We rely not upon men but Christ who is our path.
Brett Blair, www.Sermons.com
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Exaltation of the Humble - Service
During the dark days of World War II, England had a great deal of difficulty keeping men in the coal mines. It was a thankless kind of job, totally lacking in any glory. Most chose to join the various military services. They desired something that could give them more social acceptance and recognition. Something was needed to motivate these men in the work that they were doing so that they would remain in the mines.
With this in mind, Winston Churchill delivered a speech one day to thousands of coal miners, stressing to them the importance of their role in the war effort. He did this by painting for them a mental picture. He told them to picture the grand parade that would take place when VE Day came. First, he said, would come the sailors of the British Navy, the ones who had upheld the grand tradition of Trafalgar and the defeat of the Armada. Next in the parade, he said, would come the pilots of the Royal Air Force. They were the ones who, more than any other, had saved England from the dreaded German Lufwaffa. Next in the parade would come the Army, the ones that had stood tall at the crises of Dunkirk.
Last of all, he said, would come a long line of sweat-stained, soot-streaked men in minor's caps..
****
But many of us don't have "family trees." We don't have a familiar forest of known relatives we can point to and proudly claim as our own. Some of us have family blackberry bushes. By that I mean unwieldy, twisted, brier-patch knots that are way too thorny to investigate without getting hurt. Whether you have a well-shaped family tree or an untamed bramble bush in your personal history, every member of the body of Christ stills participates in the communion of the saints.
Both Saints and Sinners are present and accounted for.
****
Lutheran pastor Martin Taylor tells a delightful story which he says he heard from another pastor, an elderly gentleman, at a pastor's meeting. As a young man this pastor had been studying for the ministry and was asked to serve a small congregation in Canada over the summer months. His father who was also a pastor urged him to accept the opportunity, but he was reluctant. He was young, inexperienced. The idea of serving a congregation and especially the writing of sermons terrified him. His father said he would help him with that. He would simply provide him with some of his old sermons that he could recycle as he needed.
Reluctantly the son agreed to this proposal. And things went relatively well . . . until the day that a member of the church died. The son panicked. He had never performed a funeral. He didn't even know this parishioner. How could he prepare a message under these circumstances?
His father said not to worry. He had a funeral meditation that he had written to commemorate the life one of his church's leading saints, a meditation that had received many accolades. Evidently the person the father had eulogized was a person who had lived an exemplary life.
Apparently this was not so for the person who had died in the son's parish. Indeed, he was something of a scoundrel. So as the son rattled on about what a great saint the deceased was, the family became increasingly uncomfortable. They knew it was all untrue.
Finally a young boy in the family, who had been overhearing his family's whispered comments about the inaccuracy of the young pastor's description of their dearly departed, broke the decorum of the funeral setting. He stood in front of the pulpit and declared in a stern voice, "Hogwash, hogwash, hogwash!" Actually that's not the term he used. It's a more polite paraphrase of a common expletive.
This totally unhinged the young pastor. He was stricken speechless. All he could do was to put away his notes, close his Bible, say "Amen" and sit down.
Well clearly the deceased was not a saint--not, at least, in the way we normally think of a saint. Let's reflect for a few moments on what it takes to be a saint as we look at our text for this All Saints' Day from the Psalms...
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"The Making of a Saint"
Today's Gospel is difficult to preach on All Saints' Sunday. The story of the raising of Lazarus is familiar and uplifting, but this section is a little awkward. We enter just in time to witness Jesus' tears and anguish, some graphic words about how the body would smell, an odd little prayer, and -- almost as an afterthought -- the calling forth of four-day-dead Lazarus, still bound in his shroud, shuffling awkwardly from his tomb before the astonished mourners. No ringing words about Jesus as the resurrection and the life; just a, shall we say, former corpse blinking newly-restored eyes against the light of an ordinary earthly day.
Because that was what the still-present shroud signifies: Lazarus has been raised but not resurrected. He's been given a new lease on his old life; he hasn't been ushered yet into the life of heaven. What happened to him when Jesus called him from the grave is marvelous but is at most a foretaste or symbol of the rich, endless new life that Jesus promised. Lazarus is raised to live on earth again, with a death still in his future, and with the life of heaven still a promise.
Makes you want to run to the ringing promises of Isaiah: "And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples ... he will swallow up death forever" (Isaiah 25:7). That's more like it! Get rid of that shroud! Destroy death forever! That's what we should be hearing on All Saints' Day: a celebration of the Resurrection Life for God's saints, especially for those who have died. We want to hear that their grave-clothes and shrouds are replaced by festal robes and mantles of joy. Why not visualize glorified saints instead of resuscitated corpses?
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Celebrating All Saint's Day
When pop culture transforms a "holy day" into a "holiday," it almost always manages to focus on the wrong side of the equation.
For example:
*The number of shopping days left til Christmas is NOT as important as the 12 day period between the Christmas day miracle and the season of Epiphany.
*A huge party, Mardi Gras, on "Fat Tuesday" is NOT as important as the forty days of Lent that follow.
*Eating all your chocolate bunnies before breakfast on Easter morning is NOT as important as rejoicing over living a resurrection faith on Easter afternoon.
*Tonight, while the world is recovering from a spooky, kooky All Hallow's Eve party, "Halloween" is NOT as important as is the celebrations it fronts for - All Saints Day and All Soul's Day.
Outwitting spooky spirits on Halloween is not essential to Christian discipleship. But remembering the "saints" is. Celebrating our ancestors in the faith, those men and women, some unknown, some esteemed, who lived and died furthering the Christian faith, that is the "holy day" the church needs to hold up to the world.
The Roman Catholic Church calendar still establishes a two day series of special masses and prayers that follow All Hallow's Eve - All Saint's Day on November 1 and All Soul's Day on November 2. All Saints Day commemorates the faithful who, according to the church, have achieved heavenly status. All Soul's Day is a day to pray for family members and the unsung saints of the world.
There is a historical argument that can be made for All Saint's Day and All Soul's Day being the most under-celebrated church holiday in the post-Reformation church. Before the Reformation some overzealous fundraisers in the church gladly granted what was called a "plenary indulgence" to those who attended church services on All Saint's and All Soul's day. According to medieval theology this meant that if you attended church on those days your presence automatically released one soul from purgatory.
The problem was that eventually the church ended up with a revolving door of visitors. It was the theological equivalent of buying a fistful of lottery tickets instead of betting on just one number. Better odds. People with lots of dead relatives would enter the church, offer the name of their deceased loved one, exit the church, and then turn around and do it all again, theologically assured that each time they re-entered the church that day they were freeing another Purgatory prisoner. Those with few relatives would simply draw up lists of historical figures they liked and hoped to chalk up heavenly credit to liberate them.
This kind of incentive for church attendance is questionable, though it did work. But the eagerness of living generations to stay connected to past generations, both in prayers and in practices, is admirable. For medieval Christians, the dead were still an active part of the living, and past generations still had something to offer the present generations.
It is hard for some of us to make that kind of connection anymore. People used to know their "family trees" as well as they knew their own furniture. But the USA has always been a country made of up of new arrivals, and for some of us the past is a blur. After generations of being on the move and unattached, there are now internet sites that offer to help us find our "ancestry." At "Ancestry.com" the appearance of a single "leaf" next to a name is the signal that there is more information available.
But many of us don't have "family trees." We don't have a familiar forest of known relatives we can point to and proudly claim as our own. Some of us have family blackberry bushes. By that I mean unwieldy, twisted, brier-patch knots that are way too thorny to investigate without getting hurt. Whether you have a well-shaped family tree or an untamed bramble bush in your personal history, every member of the body of Christ stills participates in the communion of the saints.
No matter what you know, or don't know, about church history, or about your own personal history, we all have common ancestors in the faith and personal knowledge of saints. We need to celebrate All Saint's Day.
Leonard Sweet, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com
Leonard Sweet, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com
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Fall Back
Remember, Daylight Savings Time ends this weekend, officially on November 1 at 2:00 am. Don't forget to set your clock back one hour!
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He Lives!
There is a story about a man whose epitaph read, "Died at forty--buried at eighty." Something had gone out of this man long before he had drawn his last breath. Jesus knew that the secret to death's power is found in how much we fear it. Fear releases dominating power before the grave--not at the grave. Somehow the fear of dying traps the very purpose of life and locks it up--and we never enjoy our life. Our faith which we celebrate in this sanctuary today is not just a pleasant memorial service to a dead king--or a nice lord. We worship the Living God who declares that abundant life is not just available in heaven--but right here on earth. We have a "foretaste of glory divine." That is why we sing that great evangelical hymn, "He Lives."
Eric Ritz
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New Priorities of the Kingdom
A holy man was engaged in his morning meditation under a tree whose roots stretched out over the riverbank. During his meditation he noticed that the river was rising, and a scorpion caught in the roots was about to drown. He crawled out on the roots and reached down to free the scorpion, but every time he did so, the scorpion struck back at him. An observer came along and said to the holy man, 'Don't you know that's a scorpion, and it's in the nature of a scorpion to want to sting?' To which the holy man replied, 'That may well be, but it is my nature to save, and must I change my nature because the scorpion does not change his?'
Traditional
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A Religion Worth Nothing
A religion that gives nothing, costs nothing, and suffers nothing, is worth nothing.
Martin Luther
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At the Heart of the Universe Is a God Who Loves Us
The raising of Lazarus is a reminder that there will come a time when there will be no more pain or sorrow; there will come a time when there will be no more tears. Why? Because at the heart of the universe is a God who loves us.
That is the testimony of John in the Revelation. He writes, "Then I saw 'a new heaven and a new earth,' for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Look! God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
Two images ought to stick in our minds forever. Jesus standing beside a friend's tomb weeping. And even more striking, the eternal God of all creation wiping the tears from His children's eyes. Cold, impersonal universe? I don't think so.
Let me close with an interesting story. A woman named Ella Wilcox once witnessed a woman sitting quietly by herself sobbing very noticeably in the middle of a train car. At first, Ella was a little bothered by the persistent weeping, but then she noticed another passenger in the car an older gentlemen who was sitting near the rear of the car. He was telling funny stories to the passengers sitting around him. Everybody smiled and chuckled along with the old man. After a while, some of the other passengers in the car started moving. They were getting up from their seats in the front, near the crying woman, and gravitating toward the back near the man telling the funny stories. Out of this experience, Ella Wilcox wrote these well-known words: "Laugh, and the world laughs with you. Weep, and you weep alone."
When you are weeping, you may feel alone, terribly alone, but you are not. There is One who weeps with you. There is One who will one day wipe away every tear from your eyes. This One has power over life and death. This One is Jesus Christ and he has the power to call you forth from your tomb of tears and give you life once again.
King Duncan, www.Sermons.com
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Would You Be a Saint? - by Leonard Sweet
The family, the Body of Christ, should always require a two-pronged greeting: "Good Morning Saints; Good Morning Sinners!" That is the organic complexity, the paradox of orthodoxy, that makes up this "Christ-Body" and makes it so vital.
Both Saints and Sinners are present and accounted for.
And all of us are both.
My grandma used to make her requests using a very particular vocabulary. She would ask, "Would you be a saint and bring me that sweater?" Or maybe, "Would you be a saint and pick up those dishes?" All of her requests gave us the opportunity to register ourselves as "saints."
But is that all there is to being a "saint?" Would all of us be real "saints" if all we had to do was run helpful errands? Isn't there some deeper commitment, some greater impulse required of a "saint?"
We all know there are true saints in our midst this morning. Can't you feel their presence? We have but to recognize and celebrate them. And this is our problem.
The problem with real "saints" is that they are slippery. Jesus identified the revealing qualities of a true "saint" in today's text. They don't proudly peacock their achievements. They do not wear "broad phylacteries" or "long fringes." They do not insist upon the best, recognition of their deeds, or need special placement in the community, or the best seats in the sanctuary.
True "saints" slip under the radar...
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Standing Up for Christian Values
Even our culture a supposedly Judeo-Christian culture is not always in agreement with the teachings of Christ.
For example, we are a materialistic culture. Many of us are obsessed with having nice things. It would cause a radical change in our lifestyle if we were to take seriously Jesus' teaching about the place of money in our lives.
The conflict between Christ and culture was most easily seen in the days when the civil rights movement was in full bloom. Our Judeo-Christian culture actually had laws relegating people of color to the back of the bus and to grossly inferior schools. They were denied access to water fountains, restaurants and hotels. They were dehumanized in a hundred different ways.
Lyndon Baines Johnson from the state of Texas was Senate majority leader in those days. The Johnsons had a wonderful black cook, Zephyr Wright, who was considered a part of the family. One day at LBJ's home in Washington, Johnson told Zephyr that he wanted her and her husband, Sammy, to pack up and drive to the LBJ ranch in Texas to prepare for the Johnsons' vacation stay.
"I'm not going to do it," Zephyr told Johnson defiantly. She explained that on the two-day trip, she would have to substitute the bushes on the road for a rest room, brown-bag it from restaurants that would not serve blacks, and her husband would have to sleep in the backseat of the car and she in the front seat below the steering wheel because they could not get into a hotel.
Johnson told reporters of her plight many times, and when it came time to sign the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which he had proposed, he gave one of the first pens after the signing to Zephyr Wright.
"You deserve this more than anyone else," Johnson told Wright.
Do you think Johnson's support of the Civil Rights Act made him popular back in Texas? Hardly. But Texas was not alone. We had dehumanizing Jim Crow laws on the books of many of our states until finally a group of Americans both black and white said, "Enough! In the name of God, enough!"
King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com
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Mercy and Empathy
There are people crying all around us, people approaching the point of desperation. But many of their cries go unheard. The noise of the self-oriented machinery of our culture is drowning them out and they are dying. The world needs the merciful. We all need someone who will identify with us. Someone who will hear our cry, listen, have empathy, and care. We all need to have an attitude of mercy and to be the recipients of such an attitude! As Shakespeare said:
The quality of mercy is not strained;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is
twice blest, It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is
twice blest, It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes.
*****
From Fr. Tony Kadavil:
Joke of the week:
“Both of us are Halloween!”: Two little neighbor girls about the same age, one Christian and one Jewish, were constant companions. After one Easter holiday, the grandfather of the Christian girl asked her what her friend had received for Easter. The girl looked at her grandfather in surprise, and said, “But Grandpa, you should know that Becky is Jewish and she wouldn't get anything for Easter.” Then she went on to explain patiently, “You see, I’m Easter and she’s Passover. I’m Christmas and she’s Hanukkah.” Then with a big smile, she added, “but I’m really glad that both of us are Halloween.” [Buddy Westbrook in Loyal Jones: The Preacher’s Joke Book (Little Rock, Arkansas: August House, 1989), p. 26.]
“Both of us are Halloween!”: Two little neighbor girls about the same age, one Christian and one Jewish, were constant companions. After one Easter holiday, the grandfather of the Christian girl asked her what her friend had received for Easter. The girl looked at her grandfather in surprise, and said, “But Grandpa, you should know that Becky is Jewish and she wouldn't get anything for Easter.” Then she went on to explain patiently, “You see, I’m Easter and she’s Passover. I’m Christmas and she’s Hanukkah.” Then with a big smile, she added, “but I’m really glad that both of us are Halloween.” [Buddy Westbrook in Loyal Jones: The Preacher’s Joke Book (Little Rock, Arkansas: August House, 1989), p. 26.]
18 Additional anecdotes:
1. Pekapoo puppy: William Hinson recalls the time when his children were younger and one child’s pet died. Dr. Hinson says that he practiced “replacement therapy.” When one pet died it was replaced by another pet. One time his youngest daughter Cathy’s cat died. Together they went to find another pet. Cathy selected a tiny peekapoo puppy. When they got home Dr. Hinson agreed to build a doghouse for the new pet to live in. “The only kind of dog I knew very much about was a really big bird dog,” he recalls, “so when I built the doghouse, I built a very large house.” In fact the house was too large for the small dog. The size of the doghouse scared the little peekapoo puppy. No matter what they did the little dog would not go near the doghouse. In disgust, Dr. Hinson went inside, and sat down in the den while his daughter, Cathy, stood outside crying over her dad’s impatience and the refusal of her puppy to cooperate. After a while, Cathy got down on her hands and knees and crawled into the doghouse herself. When she crawled into it something wonderful happened. That little puppy trotted right in beside her and stretched out on the doghouse floor. Before too long the dog was taking a nap. All the shadows now stood still for him, and all the fear was taken out of the darkness, because the one whom he loved and trusted had preceded him into that dark and frightening place. It no longer caused him fear. [William H. Hinson. Triumphant Living in Turbulent Times (Nashville: Dimensions for Living, 1993), pp. 119-120.] There’s a lesson here for us. We can surrender our wills to God’s will, knowing that God loves us. Wherever He leads us, He will be with us. We don’t have to enter dark doghouses alone. Saints trust in God and God alone. Saints submit their will to God’s will.
1. Pekapoo puppy: William Hinson recalls the time when his children were younger and one child’s pet died. Dr. Hinson says that he practiced “replacement therapy.” When one pet died it was replaced by another pet. One time his youngest daughter Cathy’s cat died. Together they went to find another pet. Cathy selected a tiny peekapoo puppy. When they got home Dr. Hinson agreed to build a doghouse for the new pet to live in. “The only kind of dog I knew very much about was a really big bird dog,” he recalls, “so when I built the doghouse, I built a very large house.” In fact the house was too large for the small dog. The size of the doghouse scared the little peekapoo puppy. No matter what they did the little dog would not go near the doghouse. In disgust, Dr. Hinson went inside, and sat down in the den while his daughter, Cathy, stood outside crying over her dad’s impatience and the refusal of her puppy to cooperate. After a while, Cathy got down on her hands and knees and crawled into the doghouse herself. When she crawled into it something wonderful happened. That little puppy trotted right in beside her and stretched out on the doghouse floor. Before too long the dog was taking a nap. All the shadows now stood still for him, and all the fear was taken out of the darkness, because the one whom he loved and trusted had preceded him into that dark and frightening place. It no longer caused him fear. [William H. Hinson. Triumphant Living in Turbulent Times (Nashville: Dimensions for Living, 1993), pp. 119-120.] There’s a lesson here for us. We can surrender our wills to God’s will, knowing that God loves us. Wherever He leads us, He will be with us. We don’t have to enter dark doghouses alone. Saints trust in God and God alone. Saints submit their will to God’s will.
2) “Never forget what this cross means:” When Margaret Helminski was seven, she received a gift from her grandmother. It was a tiny cross on a wisp of gold chain, so fine its weight was barely perceptible. “Never forget what this cross means,” her grandmother said as she fastened it carefully around Margaret’s neck. Over the years, Margaret says, that cross became a part of her, like the lone freckle on her left cheek. She could look at herself in the mirror and not even see it.
As a graduate psychology student, Margaret took a job tutoring at a school for emotionally disturbed children. Suddenly surrounded by children who expressed their displeasure by kicking, biting, and screaming, she was terrified, though determined not to let it show. On her first night there, the head counselor said that three of the boys had asked to escort her to dinner. Alone! How would she handle it if all three decided to act out at once? She swallowed hard. She desperately needed this job so she fought back the panic and walked with her charges to the dining hall. They passed through the cafeteria line as tantrums and fights erupted around them. Fortunately none of her boys exhibited any kind of behavioral outburst. They made their way to a table in the center of the busy cafeteria and the boys took their seats. Margaret picked up her fork and was about to take the first bite when she noticed that all three boys were staring at her. “What’s the matter?” she asked. Aren’t you going to ask a blessing?” asked eight-year-old Peter. “I didn’t think I was supposed to,” she responded. “This is a state school, isn’t it?” “Yes,” said David, his blue eyes brimming, “but you wear a cross.” Her grandmother’s words surged to the surface of her memory. “Never forget what this cross means,” her grandmother said. “We thought that meant something,” said Roman, clearly disappointed. “It does. Thank you for reminding me,” Margaret said, as she bowed her head, no longer afraid. [Catholic Digest (Feb. 92), p. 64] Margaret learned something about sainthood that day. Saints trust in God and God alone for their ultimate security. Saints submit their will to the will of God. Saints stand firm and witness to their faith.
3) Is your definition of a saint a nice person who abides by all the rules? Francis of Assisi bears the title of Saint but according to Mark Galli, in an article in Christianity Today, Francis wasn’t always a nice guy to be around. For example, he had this thing about money: his friars were not to touch it. And he did not mean the “You can touch money but just don’t let it grip your heart” stuff. One day a worshiper at the Church of Saint Mary of the Portiuncula, Francis’s headquarters, left a coin as an offering at the base of the sanctuary cross. This was a common offering of gratitude to God in that day, but when one of Francis’ friars saw the money, disturbed by its presence at the cross, or perhaps knowing Francis’s revulsion of money he tossed it over to a window sill. When Francis learned the friar had touched money, he did not take the errant brother aside, explain his point of view, and then hug him so as to be sure there were no hard feelings. Instead, Francis rebuked and upbraided the brother. He then commanded him to lift the money from the window sill with his lips, find a pile of donkey dung outside, and with his lips place the coin in the pile. Was that nice? How could a saint be so nasty? Is he an exception to the larger guild of saints? Actually, when compared to the hundreds of stories of saints that can be culled from the Bible and Church history, Francis was merely fulfilling his job description. [“Saint Nasty,” Christianity Today (June 17, 1996), pp. 25-28.]
4) Sainthood is not for weaklings! A traveler reported a sign on the wall of a restaurant in Wyoming, “If you find your steak tough, walk out quietly. This is no place for weaklings.” Sainthood is not for weaklings! [John Bardsley. Quote is from Emphasis (Nov/Dec 1993), p. 21.] Felix Adler put it like this: “The hero is one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see by. The saint is the man who walks through the dark paths of the world, himself a light. [Quoted in Daily Guideposts (1996).] Saints are people we look up to. They are people of integrity who will stand their ground regardless of the standard the world may set.
5) Saints are people of integrity: Though his name might not be well known today, in 1972 and 1973 Stan Smith was known throughout the world for being the best of the best in the world of tennis. But many of those who knew of his athletic prowess were unaware that Stan Smith was also a Christian, a gracious, friendly man, and a person of integrity. Stan Smith was good friends with another man of great character and integrity, Arthur Ashe. One year, Arthur and Stan were competing against one another in the World Champion of Tennis competition. The winner would gain instant fame and a great deal of money. The two men were well matched in skill, and the score was tied at match point. Arthur hit a very tricky drop shot that just barely cleared the net. To the crowd’s amazement, Stan caught the shot and returned it in time, winning the game. But the umpires were not convinced that Stan had hit a legitimate shot. If the ball were “up,” still in play, then Stan won the match. But if the ball had bounced twice before Stan reached it, then his hit was illegitimate, and Arthur won the match. The angle and nature of the shot made it almost impossible to see it clearly. Review of the videotape didn’t provide a conclusive answer. Neither the umpire, nor Arthur Ashe had a clear view of the ball. According to the rules of tennis, the umpire asked Stan if the ball had been up when he hit it. He replied that it had been. Stan won. A minor controversy arose over this matter, and Arthur Ashe was asked many times why he had not contested the call in some way. Arthur answered, “If Stan says it was up, it was up.” He believed in the integrity of his friend so much that he trusted his honesty in a close situation. [Bob Briner, Lambs Among Wolves(Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995), p.124-126.] As far as I know Stan Smith is not a candidate for sainthood. But he did bear one of the characteristics. His words and his actions were one. Sainthood is a lifestyle.
6) Monumental statues of West Point Military Academy: West Point Military Academy just up the Hudson River from New York City, has a beautifulcampus. The style of architecture is military Gothic, the grounds are well-groomed and immaculate, and the views of the Hudson River valley can be breathtaking, especially during autumn, when the leaves are changing color. Among the most impressive aspects of the campus decoration are the monumental bronze statues of famous West Point graduates. All the great American generals are there, in one form or another: McArthur, Eisenhower, Grant… The statues are placed in conspicuous locations, and each hero is depicted in uniform, in a posture that expresses his greatness. They serve as a constant reminder to the young cadets that they are called to greatness, to self-sacrifice, to do worthwhile deeds of valor for the sake of their homeland. For us Catholic Christians, our heroes are not military or political. Rather, they are those who have done great deeds of valor for the sake of our eternal homeland: The Kingdom of Christ, the Church. They have not necessarily received exceptional natural talent from God, developing and using that talent energetically, responsibly, and courageously, as military and political heroeshave. Rather, they are the ones who have let God tend the garden of their souls, as the First Reading puts it. They welcomed God’s grace through the Sacraments, prayer, and obedience to God’s will, as explained by the Church, and a well-formed conscience. And as a result, truly supernatural virtues took root, grew, and bore fruit in their lives. And this is why images of the saints abound in Catholic churches and homes, just as those bronze statues decorate West Point. Keeping the saints in mind, studying and contemplating their example, can give direction, hope, and energy to our lives, just as the statues of great generals do for the West Point Cadets. (E- Priest)
7) Julius Caesar and St Ignatius Loyola: Julius Caesar, the founder of the Roman Empire, history’s most expansive and longest-lasting Empire, was a selfish, dissipated, mediocre government bureaucrat until he was 40 years-old. At that time he was stationed in Spain. One day he was walking across the city centerto his offices and he noticed a statue of Alexander the Great, the young Macedonian who had single-handedly conquered and ruled the entire Near East, from Greece to Turkey to Palestine to Egypt to Arabia to Afghanistan, all the way to India, before he was 33-years-old. For some reason, seeing the noble statue of that amazing man on that particular day made Julius Caesar think about what little he had done with his own life. And it was the beginning of his incomparable military and political career, one that helped forge the civilization we still enjoy. He needed an ideal to strive for, and he found it in Alexander that Great. As human beings, we all need an ideal to strive for; otherwise our lives stay mediocre. As Christians, following Christ is our ideal, and the saints are the ones who show us how to follow Christ. St Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, began his remarkably fruitful spiritual journey while he was stuck in bed recovering from a second surgery following a cannonball wound. He had nothing to do but read, and the only books in the house were a biography of Christ and the Lives of the Saints. As he read, the thought came to him: “If St. Francis and St. Dominic did it, why can’t I?” And thus was born one of the most influential saints who ever walked the earth. He discovered God’s plan for him by studying the lives of the saints. We can do the same. (E- Priest).
8) “How can I blaspheme my king who saved me?” St. Polycarp lived about 200 years after the Christian church was founded. Polycarp was Bishop of the Church at Smyrna (in present-day Turkey). Persecution broke out in Smyrna, and many Christians were fed to the wild beasts in the arena. The bloodthirsty crowd would not be satisfied until they had killed the leader of the Christian Church and sent a search party to find him. Polycarp was brought before the Roman authorities and told to curse Christ and he would be released. He replied, “Eighty-six years have I served him, and he has done me no wrong: how then can I blaspheme my king who saved me?” The Roman officer replied, “Unless you change your mind, I will have you burnt alive.” But Polycarp said, “You threaten a fire that burns for an hour, and after a while is quenched; for you are ignorant of the judgement to come and of everlasting punishment reserved for the ungodly. Do what you wish.” It was as much a day of victory as it was a day of tragedy. Polycarp illustrated the power of knowing Jesus, intimately enough to follow Him into the flames. As Jesus said, “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?”
9) “A saint is somebody that the light shines through.” Here is a children’s story. The pastor was explaining the pictures of his Church’s stained glass windows to the third graders. The first stained window is really red, the next window is really blue, the next window is really green, and the next window is really yellow. The sun has come up in the south and wonderful light is coming through these four windows. The pastor says, “This first window with all the reds is dedicated to St. Matthew and it has a picture of St. Matthew on it. The second window with all the blues is dedicated to St. Mark and it has a picture of St. Mark, the second of our Gospels. The third window with all the greens is dedicated to St. Luke and has a picture of St. Luke on it. The fourth window with all the yellows is dedicated to St. John and has a picture of St. John in it. All the windows are so beautiful, especially with the sunlight shining through them.” And one of the little girls says, “Do you know what a saint is?” “Yes,” replied the pastor. “A saint is somebody that the light shines through.” Yes, the light of God shines through the lives of the saints. It is not your light that is shining; it is the light of God shining through your lives. The windows sparkle and inspire your lives. . (Rabbi Edward F. Markquart).
10) Saints inspire us to become better Christians: Their lives inspire you and lift you up to be better people. A saint doesn’t say, “I want you to be a Christian. I am going to try to subtly force you to be a Christian. I am going to drag you to Church today.” No. By the nature of their lives, these saints inspire you to be holy. Let me explain by means of a famous example from the lives of Dr. David Livingston and Henry Stanley. Dr. David Livingston was a famous missionary in Africa and he had been there in the heart of Africa and had disappeared into the jungles. Henry Stanley went on a search for Dr. Livingston after he had long disappeared. Henry Stanley, after a lengthy search, finally found Dr. Livingston and gave us a famous line from history. “Dr. Livingston, I presume?” The two men lived together for three months and sometime after that Henry Stanley wrote his memoirs and he said: “Dr. Livingston made me a Christian, and he didn’t even know he was doing it. He inspired me and didn’t even try to.” Saints inspire you to live a life of holiness. (Rabbi Edward F. Markquart).
11) “But that’s the man you could be.” A story is told of a traveling portrait painter who stopped in a small village hoping to get some business. The town drunk — ragged, dirty and unshaved — came along. He wanted his portrait done and the artist complied. He worked painstakingly for a long time, painting not what he saw but what he envisioned beneath that disheveled exterior. Finally, he presented the painting to his customer. “That’s not me,” he shouted. The artist gently laid his hand on the man’s shoulder and replied, “But that’s the man you could be.” Today’s feast remind us that we all can become saints. St. Augustine asked: “ If he and she can, why can’t I?” (Al Carino).
12) Little Way of the Little Flower: St. Therese was a young, sickly Carmelite contemplative. She was the apple of her father’s eye but when she obtained permission to enter the convent at the age of 15, he happily brought her there. As a contemplative, she did not do anything extraordinary. Like the rest, she followed the daily and ordinary routine of the monastery. But there was something special in her. She did the ordinary in an extraordinary way. How? By doing them out of a single motive — love for God — and whatever she did, she presented to her Beloved as little flower offerings. She called her way of doing little things out of love for God her “Little Way.” She died of tuberculosis, September 30, 1897, at the age of 24. She was beatified April 29, 1923 and canonized a saint May 17, 1925, just 28 years after her death, by Pope Pius XI. In 1927 he named her co-patron of the missions with St. Francis Xavier. In 1998, Pope St. John Paul II added one more title, Doctor of the Church, and two years later made her patroness of the 2000 Jubilee Year celebrations, because of her writings on her “Little Way,” that is, the doing of the ordinary in an extraordinary way. (Wikipedia). To be this kind of a saint, we do not have to do anything extraordinary. Rather, we just do ordinary things. But what is asked of us is to do these ordinary things in an extraordinary way — for love of God. (Al Carino).
12) Halloween is the ultimate holiday of “pretending.” On Halloween we dress up and “pretend” to be someone or something other than ourselves. On Halloween we “pretend” to believe that the people jumping out at us and scaring us in the “haunted houses” we paid $25 to get into are monsters and zombies. On Halloween we happily “pretend” that the scariest stuff in life are those things that “go bump in the night.” On Halloween we revel in “pretend” bumps instead of bumping into the terrifying realities of evil and cruelty that appear on any street, in any office, at any school, in broad daylight, on any given day – and that’s just a rundown of the terrors of the last two weeks. The day after “All Hallows Eve” is known in the liturgical calendar as “All Saints Day.” “All Saints” is a celebration and commemoration of those who were never about pretense, but who devoted their lives to expressing true faithfulness and genuine piety. The Church lives, not by the majesty of its beliefs but by the manifestation of its manifold witness through the magnificence of its “Communion of Saints.” (Fr. Kayala).
13) In their footsteps: St Jerome says in his writings that as a boy he and his friends used to play in the catacombs. Centuries after St Jerome, Roman boys still played in the catacombs. One day a group of boys was wandering through the maze of tunnels. Suddenly their only flashlight gave out. The boys were trapped in total darkness with no idea of the way out. They were on the verge of panic when one boy felt a smooth groove in the rock floor of the tunnel. It turned out to be a path that had been worn smooth by the feet of thousands of Christians in the days of the Roman persecutions. The boys followed in the footsteps of these saints of old and found their way out of the darkness into sunlight and safety.
(Mark Link in Sunday Homilies; quote by Fr. Kayala).
14) All that is necessary to be a saint is …: Thomas Merton was one of the most influential American Catholic authors of the twentieth century. Shortly after he was converted to Catholicism in the late 1930s, Thomas Merton was walking down the streets of New York with a friend, Robert Lax. Lax was Jewish, and he asked Thomas what he wanted to be, now that he was Catholic. “I don’t know.” Merton replied, adding simply that he wanted to be a good Catholic. Lax stopped him in his tracks. “What you should say,” he told him, “is that you want to be a saint!” Merton was dumbfounded. “How do you expect me to be a saint?” Merton asked him. Lax said: “All that is necessary to be a saint is to want to be one. Don’t you believe that God will make you what He created you to be, if you consent to let him do it? All you have is to desire it.” Thomas Merton knew his friend was right. (John Payappilly in The Table of the Word; quoted by Fr. Kayala).
15) God’s Noblest Creation –The Saints: In the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC, under the commanding mosaic of Christ in glory, are six pillars. Atop each is a statue of a Saint. There, side-by-side, are the figures of a queen (St. Elizabeth), a vagrant (St. Benedict Joseph Labre), a cook (St Zita), a doorman (St. Conrad), a Mystic (St Gemma), and a parish priest (St John Vianney). For some of them, the road to holiness was easy, for others very hard. Some saints had gifts of great natural talent; others seemed devoid of it. Some saints were fiery, others gentle. Some were gregarious, others loners. There are old saints (such as St. Anthony of the Desert, who lived to be 105) and young saints (such as Aloysius Gonzaga and Maria Goretti). There were brilliant saints (such as Thomas Aquinas) and dense saints (such as Joseph Cupertino). There were tough saints (such as Teresa of Avila) and emotional saints (such as Therese of Lisieux). There were innocent saints (such as Dominic Savio) and reformed sinners who became saints (such as Augustine). There are also saints who did not always agree with each other, such as Jerome and Augustine, who had a running battle of words for years. Nevertheless, the saints belong together. They all responded to God’s invitation to sainthood commemorated in today’s liturgy.
(Harold Buetow in God Still Speaks –Listen!; quoted by Fr. Botelho).
(Harold Buetow in God Still Speaks –Listen!; quoted by Fr. Botelho).
16) Street sweeper can become a saint, how? Six months before he was assassinated, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to a group of students at Barratt Junior High School in Philadelphia on October 26, 1967. Part of his “What Is Your Life’s Blueprint?” speech is the tale of the street sweeper. It is inspiration that regardless of what we do we should always aspire to be the best we can at what we do. It is the secret of living saintly lives as well. “If it falls to your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music … Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the host of Heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well.” (Martin Luther King) L/17
17) Saint in heaven saving his child: “Her husband had died a few years before, and she had a young son who was born just before his father’s death. One day when her son was at a neighbor’s house, she suddenly sensed her husband was speaking to her. He seemed to be telling her that their son was drowning in a swimming pool. She ran next door to the neighbor’s and found her son drowning in the pool, exactly as she sensed her husband telling her. She pulled her son out of the pool, just in time to save his life. Why does this story move us so deeply? A story about a child’s life being saved is certainly moving, but this story contains something more. A dead father is still there for his child, at the moment when he is needed most.” (From Healing the Greatest Hurt page 144 by Matthew & Denis Linn and Sheila Fabricant and published by Paulist Press).
18) Contacting extraterrestrials: For some time now, scientists have been sending signals into the cosmos, hoping for a response from some intelligent being on some lost planet. The Church has always maintained a dialogue with the inhabitants of another world — the saints. That is what we proclaim when we say, “I believe in the communion of the saints.” Even if inhabitants outside of the solar system existed, communication with them would be impossible, because between the question and the answer, millions of years would pass. Here, though, the answer is immediate because there is a common center of communication and encounter, and that is the risen Christ. (Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM Cap, Vatican)
