What miracle do I want to see?

Homily

Solemnity of All Saints

1 November 2021

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

AMDG +mj

What miracle do I want to see?

Miracles can be spookier than ghosts.  So is holiness.  Halloween gives way to All Saints today.  I dare say today is scarier than yesterday.  For the fun of pretending to be someone I'm not gives way to the call to become who I was created to be.  It's easier to don costumes than to wash my robe in the blood of the Lamb.

I want to see the miracle of my becoming a saint!  That desire is still in me.  It's still in you.  The miracle of transubstantiation in front of us, as improbable as it may be, dares yet more!  The grace of the Eucharist invites the miracle of my becoming a saint.  If only I dare faith.  If only I do not get scared.

How terribly awesome is the capacity to become a saint, which is nothing less than to love like God!

My freedom is an intimidating gift.  It's much safer to pretend to be someone of something else rather than who I am.  It's easier to say I don't believe.  I'm not sure.  I don't care.  It doesn't really matter.  Leave me alone.  Good enough is good enough.

Yet these are the lies the saints never believed.  Their witness haunts me.  Their encouragement intimidates me.  If they are real I have no excuse and no escape.  Holiness really is the scariest thing of all.  

Yet here I am again on All Saints.  I'm confronted by the miracle of the holy ones, who were once just like me.  Because they are real, I know the greatest tragedy today is if I do not become a saint.  I know the most urgent thing is whether I try to become a saint.

This is not to make myself the center of the universe.  It's to see and feel and receive and answer the universal call to holiness that comes to each of us. This call is nothing if it is not utterly urgent and personal.

Holiness is scary.  Beware of the 'phog'.  This great cloud of witnesses wishes to answer the pivotal question for me today!  What miracle do you want to see, dear saints of God?  They want to see me become a saint.  They pray for me a love that casts out my fear of my deepest potential and desire.