Solemnity of All Saints Day

They prostrated themselves before the throne, worshipped God… – Revelation 7:11

       When a child says, “Daddy, I’m afraid of ghosts!” you don’t lecture him and say, “There are no ghosts!” Instead the father just wraps his arms around the child and says, “Daddy is here. Everything will be OK.”

       Many times, we end up worrying about this ghost and that ghost, this problem or that problem. But today, God is telling us, “I’m here, everything will be alright.”

       Worriers expect bad things to happen to them because they’re focused on bad things. Worshippers expect good things to happen to them because they’re focused not only on good things but on a good God!

       Today, when people hear the word worship, they think it’s something that you do for God. A lot of persons think that worship is singing, praying and raising their hands. That’s not the center of worship. In my understanding, worship is God loving us, accepting us, embracing us and blessing us.

       Stop worrying and start worshipping. And starting today, expect to be blessed. Bo Sanchez (bosanchez@kerygmafamily.com)

Reflection: When times are bad, do you worship or do you worry?

My Lord and my God, help me to look up to You in worship — no matter what happens around me.

All Saints, pray for us.

We are all called to be saints. It is not easy to achieve this, but we should do our best to live as saints in the world. What the world needs most are holy men and women who live their faith as beacons of light. Saints are experts in humanity – they lived exemplary human lives that witness to the Gospel and are examples for us to imitate.

Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14

2 I, John, saw another angel come up from the East, holding the seal of the living God. He cried out in a loud voice to the four angels who were given power to damage the land and the sea, 3 “Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.” 4 I heard the number of those who had been marked with the seal, one hundred and forty-four thousand marked from every tribe of the Israelites. 9 After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. 10 They cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb.” 11 All the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They prostrated themselves before the throne, worshiped God, 12 and exclaimed: “Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, honor, power, and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen.” 13 Then one of the elders spoke up and said to me, “Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?” 14 I said to him, “My lord, you are the one who knows.” He said to me, “These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb.”

Psalm 24:1-2, 3-4, 5-6

R: Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.

1 The Lord’s are the earth and its fullness; the world and those who dwell in it. 2 For he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. (R) 3 Who can ascend the mountain of the Lord? Or who may stand in his holy place? 4 One whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean, who desires not what is vain. (R) 5 He shall receive a blessing from the Lord, a reward from God his savior. 6 Such is the race that seeks for him, that seeks the face of the God of Jacob. (R)

In his letter, John encourages us to be as pure as Christ. We can achieve this only through a relationship with Christ. If we have not personally experienced God’s love, it will be impossible for us to share it with others. We need to open our hearts and lives to God and invite Him to pour His love into us.

1 Beloved: See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure. 

The Beatitudes are a roadmap for sanctity. We grow in holiness by living out the Beatitudes. One of the most important aspects of evangelization is the life of the evangelizer. When a person proclaims the Gospel, nobody will listen unless his or her life testifies to all the values and truths that he or she proclaims.

Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest, says the Lord.

1 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 He began to teach them, saying: 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land. 6 Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. 8 Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. 10 Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.”

think: When a person proclaims the Gospel, nobody will listen unless his or her life testifies to all the values and truths that he or she proclaims.

READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR Isaiah 37-40

Things to be grateful for from the past week

Things to ask God for in the coming week

Most important word God told me this week

CALLED TO BE SAINTS

Ask any Church congregation who among them wants to go to heaven, I’m almost sure you will get a hundred percent response. But ask the same group who wants to be a saint, and I doubt if you will see a hand raised.

       We are all called to be saints. A saint, simply speaking, is a friend of God, and all those who are in heaven are called saints. In that blessed community, there are saints with a small “s.” They refer to anyone “worthy”  enough for the gift of heaven. And then there are saints with a capital “S,” the likes of St. Teresa of Avila, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. John Vianney, etc. They are the canonized saints. Why do we have canonized saints?

       The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains: “By canonizing some of the faithful, i.e., by solemnly proclaiming that they practiced heroic virtue and lived in fidelity to God’s grace, the Church recognizes the power of the Spirit of holiness within her and sustains the hope of believers by proposing the saints to them as models and intercessors” (CCC #828).

       My friend captured it very beautifully when she said that saints are like “spiritual post-its.” They remind us of our daily battle against spiritual mediocrity. Saints are not perfect people. They simply believe that their weaknesses do not define who they are. A quote from St. Augustine goes: “There is no saint without a past; no sinner without a future.” He should know. He was one of the greatest sinners we know who became a saint. And St. John Paul II, canonized along with St. John XXIII on April 27, 2014, the Feast of the Divine Mercy, said, “We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures; we are the sum of our Father’s love for us.”

       Let us embrace our common calling to be saints and be “spiritual postits” to one another. Tell yourself, “I will keep prodding on in this community of sinners trying its best to become saints. With the grace of Christ’s Church, I remind myself that every saint has a sinful past but every sinner has a saintly future!” Fr. Joel Jason

REFLECTION QUESTION: Do you believe that sainthood is our common calling in life?

Attract my heart to friendship with You, O God. Help me embrace and believe in my call to sanctity. Amen.