Happy feast day to you all! Today we celebrate All Saints—those who are with God in
heaven and inspire us in our faith.
When
we think of saints we often consider those who have been canonized—St. John the
Evangelist and St. Joseph, after whom our parishes our named, and many
more. These are the men and women
whom the Church has declared to be in heaven and we can know this 100%.
But
we don’t just celebrate the canonized saints today. We give thanks for all the men and women who have gone
before us that we trust are also with God in heaven. This morning I was visiting the kindergarten class and one
of the girls said something cute and profound at the same time. Sadly, this little one lost her mom
last spring to cancer. She said, “It’s
my mom’s feast day today because she is with Jesus in heaven!” That’s what this day is all about.
The first person I think of as a
saint in this regard is my Grandma.
My Grandma Betty was the best.
She made the best cookies, fed us meat and potatoes and gave us Cinnamon
Toast Crunch, a cereal that my health teacher parents didn’t have in our own
house. More importantly she
inspired me in the faith, particularly in the Rosary. As a young boy she taught me this necklace was actually used
to pray and I’ll never forget her telling me the Rosary was one Our Father and
ten Hail Mary’s that we pray as Catholics. Later in life, praying the Rosary with my Grandma provided
one of the most inspiring moments of my life.
I was visiting Grandma a couple of
days before her death. My friend
and I were praying the Rosary and Grandma simply held the beads, unable even to
finger along. She was incoherent
and hadn’t eaten or really moved in a day. I’ll never forget what happened in the middle of this
Rosary. She lifted up her head,
the light came back in her eyes and she told me, “Jesus loves you.” These were her last words to me and for
all I know her last words spoken.
We celebrate the lives of countless
men and women who have gone before us that have taught and inspired us in our
faith, careers and families. God
calls us to follow their lead and we do our best to live up to those who go
before us. In this same classroom
this morning I asked the kids, “Who here wants to go to heaven?” Most of the kids raised their hands,
except for one of the boys. I
asked him, “You don’t want to go to heaven?” “No,” he answered.
The other kids started saying, “I can’t wait to see Grandma/Auntie, etc.” Then this little boy said. “I changed my mind. I want to go to heaven to see my Grandma too.”
God calls us all to be saints. Today we celebrate all the saints—those
canonized by the Church and those men and women who we pray and trust are with
God in heaven. They are with us
here today at Mass and for that we are grateful on this wonderful feast.
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