{"id":8611,"date":"2022-11-01T19:12:41","date_gmt":"2022-11-01T23:12:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=8611"},"modified":"2022-11-01T19:12:42","modified_gmt":"2022-11-01T23:12:42","slug":"all-saints-day-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/all-saints-day-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"All Saints Day – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

All Saints Day<\/a>
Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14
Psalm 24:1bc-2, 3-4ab, 5-6 (see 6)
1 John 3:1-3
Matthew 5:1-12a
November 1, 2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are numerous people who have been canonized as saints in our Catholic Church.  Each of them has their own feastday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example. St. John Fisher, who is the patron saint of our diocese shares June 22nd<\/sup> with St. Thomas More for his feastday.  St. Benedict, namesake of our church in Odessa, has his feastday on July 11th<\/sup>.  The archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael share a feastday on September 29th<\/sup>.  St. Francis of Assisi\u2019s is October 4th<\/sup>.  St. Francis Xavier Cabrini, who was the first American citizen to be canonized, feastday is November 13th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With so many saints canonized, on each day of the year there are numerous saints\u2019 feastday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, for all the saints that are canonized, there are many more.  Canonization does not make one a saint.  Canonization recognizes that the person is already a saint.  A saint is one who is in Heaven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We celebrate All Saints\u2019 Day mindful of the saints not known by name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If being a saint isn\u2019t dependent on canonization, what determines a saint?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saints are those who have the seal on the forehead.  We enter the Communion of Saints in Baptism.  During the Rite of Baptism, we are marked with the Sign of the Cross on our foreheads.  We are made children of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That alone does not make us saints.  The Beatitudes speak of what must be in our hearts if we are saints.  \u201cBlessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs in the Kingdom of heaven\u2026Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied\u2026Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clean of heart?\u00a0 We dirty our hearts when we sin.\u00a0 How are we to be clean of heart?\u00a0 Revelation describes the saints as those wearing white robes.\u00a0 White is a sign of purity but how are we to be pure, to be clean if we have sins.\u00a0 Revelation also says, \u201cthey have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, we have sinned but we allow Jesus to make us clean when we confess our sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  Then our robes are made \u201cwhite in the Blood of the Lamb<\/em>.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who can be saints?  Revelation tells of \u201cthe vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue<\/u><\/strong><\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone can be a saint.  Everyone can be in Heaven.  It is not dependent on our nation, race, people, or tongue.  It is dependent on us giving our hearts to God.  This is what it means to be \u201cpoor in spirit<\/em>.\u201d  It is when we are \u201cpoor in spirit<\/em>\u201d that God welcomes us to the \u201cKingdom of heaven<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are created to know God.  We look for happiness in this world but we can only find true joy with God.  It is when we realize this, we become the people who long to see God\u2019s face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bible contains images of Heaven.  Yet, we don\u2019t know exactly what Heaven will be like.  What we do know is that when we are saints in Heaven we will be with God.  What more do you want?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All Saints DayRevelation 7:2-4, 9-14Psalm 24:1bc-2, 3-4ab, 5-6 (see 6)1 John 3:1-3Matthew 5:1-12aNovember 1, 2022 There are numerous people who have been canonized as saints in our Catholic Church.  Each of them has their own feastday.  For example. St. John Fisher, who is the patron saint of our diocese shares June 22nd with St. Thomas …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘All Saints Day – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82,55],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-2eT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8611"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8611"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8612,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8611\/revisions\/8612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}