For daily readings, see
http://www.usccb.org/nab/110107.shtmlI don’t know about you, but I am so glad that after hearing about the 144,000 whose foreheads were marked with the seal, John goes on to see in his vision another multitude that no one could count wearing white robes. Just in case I don’t make the top 144,000 people of all time, it is comforting to know there will be countless others as well who will inherit the kingdom of heaven. Oh how I would like to be in that number, when the Saints go marching in!
What an unbelievably great feast day this is, and not only because I have served the last three years as chaplain of St. Thomas Aquinas high school, the home of the Saints! Today is a quintessentially Catholic feast day, one that we do not share with our Protestant brothers and sisters, as we celebrate the light of Christ’s resurrection made visible by the lives of all holy men and women of history. It is true that we live in a world shrouded in darkness – a world made dark by sin – rivalry, envy, pride, violence, poverty, disease and doubt! But in all times and in all places, the light of Jesus’ resurrection remains visible as it is reflected in the lives of the saints! It is true that Jesus has his own light, a light that is powerful enough to scatter any darkness, but until the time when the ruler of this world is cast out once and for all time, he relies on holy men and women to reflect the truth that the Easter fire is still burning, and that sin and death will never have the final say.
Blessed are those men and women who have not seen, and yet have believed. Christ knew that after appearing to his initial disciples, that faith in his resurrection would not grow stronger based on his making an endless series of resurrection appearances. Instead, he ascended to the Father and sent the Holy Spirit to guide the Church into all truth, and to remind the Church of everything that Christ said and did. From the time of the Ascension onward, blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed, by letting the Holy Spirit guide them to believe in the truth of Jesus’ resurrection. It is because of the saints throughout history that you and I do not need to be afraid today – sin and death have only temporary power – they do not have the final say. The lives of the saints are living testimony to the truth of Jesus’ resurrection, a faith that has come clearly through 2000 years of human history – a faith that helps us to set our hearts on the kingdom of heaven!
The beatitudes are the commandments of those who no longer love their life in this world more than the eternal life preserved for them in heaven. Our life on this earth, lasts but a moment, but through the sacraments Christ left the Church we begin living today the life that we will live forever with God in heaven. In baptism, our robes are washed clean of original sin and we are reborn as children of God even while we remain in this world. At baptism we are sealed on our foreheads with holy Chrism and incorporated into the body of Christ – we become one of the 144,000 foretold in the book of Revelation. Through the sacrament of reconciliation our robes are washed clean of all sin, and in the Eucharist we receive from heaven food that strengthens our souls for the battle against evil. And in the sacrament of Confirmation we are sealed again on our foreheads with the gift of the Spirit, so that we will never stray from what is true, good, beautiful and eternal, and so that we might share in the mission of Christ to reconcile all things to God!
Through the sacraments Catholic people are filled with grace and goodness, and the more we cooperate with this grace, if we ask God to touch us with his grace more than we turn away from him in sin, the more we live not by the ten commandments, but by the beatitudes that are proclaimed with such joy on this holy feast! The ten commandments, as hard as they are to follow, are not the criteria of whether we become saints, of whether we gain the kingdom of heaven. For we are not saved by the law, but by the grace of Christ! Those who use the ten commandments as the final barometer of whether or not they will get to heaven will never get there! Even as we struggle to follow the ten commandments more exactly, we are to show evidence that our hearts love the things of heaven more than the things of this earth. Even before we live the ten commandments perfectly, we are to continually ask God to fill our lives with faith, hope and love, and we are to participate as fully as possible in Christ’s paschal mystery, allowing every part of our lives in this world to be broken apart so that the kingdom of heaven may be made more visible through us!
This in the end is the gift of the saints to us, not only all those men and women who have been canonized by the Church, but also all those men and women who were never canonized but who helped to strengthen faith in Christ’s resurrection. The gift of the saints is the example of those who sacrificed building a lasting kingdom for themselves on this earth and instead fearlessly trusted in the truth of Christ’s promises. In allowing their lives to be broken open, they passed down to us a treasure more precious than any kingdom Satan could offer us. The saints teach us how to love the kingdom of heaven, and how to make that kingdom more visible and more present through the gift of their lives. We should all ask them to help us by their prayers to move beyond our fears and our attachments to this life. We should learn from their example how to begin living today the life we will live forever with God in heaven. We should share in their victory by using our lives to bring many others to faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Oh when the saints, go marching in, oh when the saints go marching in! Oh how I’d like to be in that number, when the saints go marching in!!!!
