October 31st 2020 - Feast of All Saints.
GOSPEL: Matthew 5, 1-12
Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini broadcast on Vatican Radio
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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel
‘How happy are the poor in spirit; theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Happy the gentle: they shall have the earth for their heritage.
Happy those who mourn: they shall be comforted.
Happy those who hunger and thirst for what is right: they shall be satisfied.
Happy the merciful: they shall have mercy shown them.
Happy the pure in heart: they shall see God.
Happy the peacemakers: they shall be called sons of God.
Happy those who are persecuted in the cause of right: theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
‘Happy are you when people abuse you and persecute you and speak all kinds of calumny against you on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven; this is how they persecuted the prophets before you.’
The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ
Summary . . . This Sunday we celebrate All Saints with a reading of the Gospel of the Beatitudes. The list involves a lot of passive verbs – “they shall be comforted, shall be satisfied, shall be called”, etc. What this passive form highlights is that the blessed person is someone who is on the receiving end of the work of the Lord; he is the Lord’s handiwork. Unfortunately, we often think of sanctity as something that depends on our work, our activity, our qualities. Sometimes, when we read the lives of the saints, we are inclined to focus on their exceptional qualities. But a saint is really someone who does not oppose the working of God in their lives. Technically, we are all holy from the moment of our baptism. The challenge is to allow the holiness of the Lord to manifest itself in our lives. There is not a holiness of St Francis of Assisi or of Ignatius of Loyola. There is the holiness of God that we encounter in these saints. When I encounter sanctity, I am put in touch with the power and beauty of God. But how does the holiness of God become rooted in these saints? The ground in which holiness manifests itself is in poverty of spirit. This is ground that can be common to all of us! We are all in grief, all in need of mercy, all hungry and thirsty for righteousness. We are not righteous in ourselves and know that we need to be made righteous by God. We are not the parent, or child, or priest, or friend, that we should be. God supplies for our insufficiency and incompleteness. We were made incomplete so that we might be filled with God. Those who have no need of others are people who don’t enter into relationships. They don’t need to. A person, however, who knows that he needs the Lord’s mercy and his providence is someone who has opened himself to the grace of God. The feast of All Saints is not a day to marvel at the exceptional qualities of others, but a day to allow God to work in our poverty and insufficiency. We are all called to taste the holiness of God. Holiness is not simply the fruit of our good intentions. It requires connecting ourselves to the Father, living as his sons and daughters, rather than living as subjects who are autonomous. The holiness of God involves being in relationship with the Father and allowing that relationship to shine forth in our lives.
Is sanctity about conformity to an unattractive style of life? Is it all about self-denial?
The Church celebrates sanctity by proclaiming the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes are a combination of poverty, grief, hunger, thirst and even persecution. Holiness doesn’t seem all that desirable, does it? The other common idea of holiness, though, is not so attractive either. It talks about self-denial, an attitude that seem unreal, even if beautiful. Who can measure up to these ideals of holiness? It must be remembered that before the multitudes of saints canonized by recent popes - which have made holiness closer and less abstract - for centuries it was more normal to look on the saints as bearers of extraordinary human virtues. Sanctity, certainly admirable, was impractical unless one was born with exceptional qualities.
In the Gospel, however, Jesus says that sanctity is all about happiness, not misery!
Yet, the Gospel passage that the Church proclaims repeats the same word, obsessively. This word becomes like a background noise, remaining under the other things that are said. The word is "blessed" (translated “happy” in the Irish/British lectionary). It is repeated nine times, coming always at the beginning of each sentence. The rules of communication say that the most repeated thing, in general – even if it is not the most important - is still central. The word "blessed", beyond the interesting etymologies that it carries within itself, is powerfully connected to happiness, to enjoyment. Jesus begins the most important of his sermons, which will unfold for three chapters in the Gospel of Matthew, repeating the word “happiness” nine times. He did not come to bring beautiful vestments for the sacristy, but joy, happiness, exultation. A saint is someone who has scored a goal. He is one who has found the path of happiness. In fact, before proclaiming anyone a saint, the Church must recognize him as blessed, a person who has reached a state of exultation.
Holiness is not about duty but joy.
This tells us that holiness is not a question of duty, but of pleasure. Real pleasure, pleasure that is not transitory, pleasure that is worth having. Today there are so many people who mimic happiness, who feign joy. Our culture is made up of a sea of false happiness, with highs, self-affirmations, victories over others, transgressions. And it is a world full of emptiness. These false joys consume everything and leave nothing. They demand that we seek even greater “highs”, bigger risks, increased doses. Such behaviour, however, only leads to even greater emptiness. This false joy claims that the only other alternative is a mediocre life made up of security and comfort. But holiness is not mediocre! It is a life of colour, of passion, of greatness, of beauty. It's what a boy and girl want when they get married. It's what a child wants when he has great aspirations and dreams. Holiness involves going straight to the target and reaching the goal of life. It involves learning to love and to love a lot. True happiness has only one source: true love.
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