November 1, 1998All Saints DayThirty First Sunday in Ordinary Time |
1) Wisdom 11, 22--12, 1
2) 2 Thessalonians 1, 11--2, 2
3) Luke 19, 1-10
What would prompt you to put effort into seeing someone? Would you wait along a parade route to see a president drive by? Would you stand at the palace gate in the hopes of seeing a queen? Would you climb to the second floor or even climb a tree to see a holy person walk by? Zacchaeus did.(3) Zacchaeus was so excited at the prospect of meeting the Lord that he was willing to climb a tree to see Jesus. Jesus noticed. God always notices when we are willing to go the extra distance.
It is hard to get excited on the occasion of paying a bill. It should be easy to get excited on the occasion of participating in the Lord's work. Often, our stewardship in the Church seems like one more bill, one more obligation. If it has become that for us today it might be time to remember the enthusiasm of Zacchaeus and go climb a tree. After all, God loves a cheerful (and enthusiastic) giver.
Next Sunday the readings will be: 1)2 Maccabees 7, 1-2. 9-14; 2)2 Thessalonians 2, 16-- 3, 5; 3)Luke 20, 27-38.
This year we are blessed in that All Saints Day (November 1) falls on a Sunday. Because of its importance, it takes precedence over the Sunday Liturgy. It is always a glorious, joyful, triumphal celebration of the Saints in Heaven. All Souls Day, which immediately follows on November 2, is a different type of remembrance and memorial. All Saints Day reminds us of all of the recognized saints who stand in the presence of God in Eternity, interceding for us, and giving praise to God. They remind us that each of us is called to Sanctity, to live out our Christian lives each and every day, as tough as the challenge might be. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that:
It is the Church, in communion with all the baptized, that the Christian fulfills his vocation. From the Church he receives the Word of God containing the teachings of "the law of Christ." From the Church he receives the grace if the sacraments that sustains him on his "way". From the Church he learns the example of holiness and recognizes its model and source in the all-holy Virgin Mary; he discerns it in the authentic witness of those who live it; he discovers it in the spiritual tradition and long history of the saints who have gone before him and whom the liturgy celebrates in the rhythms of the sanctoral cycle.
The day of November 2, All Souls Day, is another reminder of eternity. It is also about the communion of Saints, but in a different way. We need to remember on this day to pray for all of the Faithful Departed, and to be joined to them through our prayers, Masses, and good works..to be joined with them in their final journey to eternal glory. This day (and indeed the entire month of November) is a reminder of what "purgatory" is, and how the outpouring of God's love at the end of our lives cleanses us and prepares us to truly enter the fullness of eternal life. The foundation of this teaching can be found in the Book of Macabees, and passages in St. Luke's Gospel. In this regard, the Catechism of the Catholic Church also teaches that "All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven." More on the month of November and the end of the Church year next week!
The month of November is our traditional time to honor the memory of the faithful departed in a special way, but this remembrance is not restricted to one month of the year. In the average parish, the overwhelming majority of Mass intentions are specifically for those who have died. Each Eucharistic Prayer includes some mention of those who have died in Christ and many communities include the names of the recently deceased in the General Intercessions. These practices are part of our celebration of the paschal mystery of Jesus and of our faith in the communion of saints, all those whose lives and deaths have been joined to that of Christ. Nevertheless, our reformed rites have not yet displaced our former terminology.
In the 1970s, the traditional term Requiem Mass was often replaced by the phrase Mass of Resurrection. While it is true that today's funeral liturgy has tried to achieve a balance between human grief and Christian hope, we do not celebrate the resurrection of the deceased; instead, the term Mass of Resurrection should be reserved for the Easter celebration. The correct designation is Funeral Mass or Funeral Liturgy, or, when interment takes place immediately, Mass of Christian Burial may be used.
Archdiocese of St. Louis, Rite Notes
The feast of ALL SAINTS is celebrated by the Church each year on November 1, as one of the six Holy Days of Obligation. This year, we celebrate All Saints Day on Sunday, always a day required of Catholics to come together in worship. The feast is seen as the prime celebration of that article of our creed in which we profess to believe in THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS.
All Saints Day does more than honor those whom the Church has canonized as saints over the ages. All Saints Day is the feast of our parents, perhaps our spouses or some of our best friends. It is the feast of those who believed in God and lived that faith. The saints are people just like us who struggled and sometimes failed. They were kings and peasants, rich and poor, black and white, Catholics, Protestants, Jews and pagans. They were the people who lived their lives as responsibly as they knew how in relationship with God and with the people in their lives. They are the people who did not give in to the pressures of their day and surrender their dignity. ALL SAINTS DAY is a reminder that we become what we choose to be. We are all invited to be saints, but must pursue that path through life.
Today we have the privilege of celebrating All Saints Day on Sunday; all the faithful come together to give praise to God for all the women and men who have gone before us and publicly followed the way of the Lord.
This is truly our feast. We acknowledge what the Lord has in store for us. Reflect on these words from the second reading: "See what love the Father has bestowed on us in letting us be called children of God!" (I Jn 3:1). We have been bathed in the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ, who has brought us salvation.
In focusing on the saints we look toward our final destiny; to be with God in heaven. However, it is the holy ones who are held up to us so that we, too, might yearn for our eternal home. These people from all corners of the earth reinforce the importance of living out our faith that is a gift from God.
Our present Holy Father has highlighted this by canonizing women and men from various countries as a sign to all that God, through His Spirit, continues to call us to the Way, the Truth and the Life. Jesus Christ is our Lord, let the example of the saints renew in us the call to be holy.
Fr. Ron
The Opening Prayer for All Saints Day begins: Father, all-powerful and ever-living God, today we rejoice in the holy men and women of every time and every place. . . All Saints Day celebrates those people of flesh and blood like us who have been proclaimed by the Church to be living with God in eternal life_for sure.
It is a beautiful Feast because on this day we are surrounded with the memory of past disciples of Jesus and the present and persistent call of Jesus to be disciples today. What a pantheon of saints adorn our list (canon): martyrs like Felicity, Agnes, Stephen, and Charles Lwanga; deep mystics like John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila; brilliant saints like Augustine and Edith Stein; saints with great hearts but diminished mental capacities like John Vianney or Germaine; mendicant preachers like Dominic and Francis. And the list goes on.
This Feast Day is most profoundly our feast day, too. Hard as it is to say or believe, each one of us is holy, blessed by God. Not finished yet, we continue our struggle with sin and compulsion, with disease and disappointment, and we continue our process of maturation in the Spirit. We continue, too, our work for justice and reconciliation.
All Saints Day calls us, as Edith Stein put it, to suffer and to be happy, to rejoice in our worship of God and in our relationships with others and to mourn the losses that human life inevitably brings. I can't help but think, too, of the Veneration of the Cross during the Good Friday Liturgy at St. Pius V. So many of you, holy people, kneel, touch, or kiss the cross. At that time, I experience the holiness of our Parish most deeply.
May God bless you on this Holy Day,
Fr. Mike
In the last line of the Creed we profess to believe in "the resurrection of the body and life everlasting." This is what we emphasize at Christian funerals. At death the essence of who we are departs from our body to meet God in a particular judgment based on how we lived in the flesh. At the moment of death, we believe that we enter into the presence of God through a process of purification or immediately. Or, sadly, into an immediate and eternal separation from God. The state of being in immediate communion face to face with God is what we call heaven. The state of being in process toward this communion we call purgatory. Hell is the state of being eternally separated from God.
At the final judgement we believe that we will be united with our bodies that are transformed. All this month we remember in our prayers those who are in the process of purification. Pray also for us in process here on earth.
Today news headlines highlight the ups and downs of a global economy. All of us are affected by these ever-present shifts.
This past Tuesday evening at St. Alban's we hosted a prayer service with lecture to increase awareness of what our Church has been saying about the economy in light of justice for all. It was a time to deepen our sensitivity to the fact that for us as Catholics the pursuit of economic justice is not an option but is rather an essential part of what we believe. Our American bishops have consistently reminded us that the call to economic justice is a response to the Scriptures and a requirement of our Catholic teaching.
The central message from U.S. bishops has been that
Pope John Paul II continues to be a powerful voice for solidarity and justice in our world. His defense of the poor, workers, family life, and the victims of injustice have been a constant theme of his travels and teaching in many places throughout our world.
In our Church and society questions about the economy continue to surface -
While answers to these and other questions are not simple, each of us is called to make a difference within our spheres of influence - home, business, church, school, etc. Each of us is invited to reflect on "What is it I can do that will make a difference for my life and the lives of others?"
Economic justice begins in homes and families, in individual choices and household priorities. Reflect on the economic choices your family makes. How do those choices promote or diminish economic justice? Do they contribute to our growing culture of consumption? Do we patronize companies that treat their workers fairly? If we hire people to help with child-care, housecleaning, or yard work, are they paid a living wage?
In places of employment, as managers or executives, how do we promote jobs, provide decent wages and benefits? How do our employment practices support family values and human dignity?
In coming elections do we evaluate how the positions of candidates advance or undermine human life in our communities, nation and world?
How often do we pray for those who are struggling in poverty, for those whose decisions and behavior contribute to economic justice and injustice.
Are we able to volunteer time to serve the poor through our parish, Al-Pac, or other social service organization? How do we make choices in the distribution of our resources?
This past Sunday our responsorial psalm was: "The Lord hears the cry of the poor." We as followers of Jesus are reminded that in today's world none of us can prosper for long unless all of us are growing in the things we need for lives of dignity and sufficiency.
The Church's vision, for the new millennium, can be summarized by use of three verbs: evangelize-reconcile-celebrate. The liturgical year provides a natural rhythm in which to celebrate the holy year.
1998 has been a year rededicated to the Holy Spirit. Pope John PAUL II invites the Church to prepare for the new millennium by reflecting ON and remaining IN the Holy Spirit.
The presence of the Spirit in the liturgy is a power-filled presence. It is the Spirit that gathers the Church for prayer. It is the work of the Spirit that brings people from diverse activities to a life of prayer together. It is by the power of the Spirit that the Church is able to pray. The Spirit too helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought. (Romans 8:26). It is in the power and unity of the Spirit that the Church can go out and live what it has prayed. As we soon come to the conclusion of 1998, let us continue to hope in the presence of the Holy Spirit guiding us and praying in us.
Celebrate 2000!...Reflections on Jesus, The Holy Spirit, and the Father, by Pope John Paul II. Lay Participation and Cooperation in Church Affairs...Lay people, by reason of the knowledge, competence, or outstanding ability which they enjoy, are able and sometimes even obliged to express their opinion on things which concern the good of the church. They can do this either individually or through appropriate bodies. It is therefore incumbent upon the Church's pastors to be attentive to the suggestions and proposals of the lay faithful, while at the same time exercising the freedom and authority which is theirs by divine right to shepherd that part of God's people entrusted to them.
It would be an error to judge ecclesial structures of participation and cooperation by secular democratic standards, or to consider them as forms of power-sharing or means of imposing partisan ideas or interests. They should be looked on as forms of spiritual solidarity proper to the Church as a communion of persons who, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another (Rom 12:5). Such structures are fruitful to the extent that they manifest the true nature of the Church as a hierarchical communion, animated and guided by the Holy Spirit. [TPS 39/2, 1994, 122]
The Holy Father was pleased to be informed that All Saints Parish in St. Peters is celebrating the 175th anniversary of its establishment.
His Holiness prays that as the community gathers around the Altar of Sacrifice to give thanks to God for so many years of grace the parishioners will continue to grow in union with Christ and his Church, and thus be built, like living stones... into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Pt 2:5). It is his hope that all will be further strengthened in their baptismal mission to be joyful witnesses in society of the saving power of the Gospel. In particular he encourages young people to meet the challenge of carrying the Catholic faith strong and unblemished into the next millennium, and he asks them to give serious consideration to the Lord's call to serve him in the priesthood and religious life.
Commending the pastor and parishioners to the intercession of Mary, Queen of All Saints, the Holy Father cordially imparts his Apostolic Blessing as a pledge of joy and peace in Jesus Christ our Savior.
With personal good wishes, I remain
Sincerely yours in Christ,
+G.B.Re
