Mt 5:1-12a Hunger and Thirst

Solemnity of All Saints
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When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after be had sat down, his disciples came to him.  He began to teach them, saying:  "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.  Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land..."

For they will...What do all seven beatitudes have in common?  Desire.  Desire that never quite satisfied.

The beatitudes are about desire, desire for change.  They were written for souls seeking - yearning, longing - for change.  Regardless of my endless failings, I will never stop seeking.   

We are sinners in reality and saints in hope. 

Saints are real people too.  A few days ago, I received a card for Priest Appreciation Sunday.  A mom wrote it on behalf of her family.  She said, "My seventeen-year-old teen loves to attend Mass and is very happy when you give the homily.  When I pointed out all your defects, such as getting speeding tickets and swearing (as a child), she said, 'Oh, you mean he is a real person.'" 

What a complement.  Let's get one thing straight.  Saints are not weird people, but they are rare.

Today, is the Solemnity of All Saints.  I was curious to see what some saints had to say about, well, saints.  I was touched to tears by what St. Augustine once wrote:  "There is no saint without a past.  No sinner without a future." Wow!  How comforting.  How refreshing. 

When I was a child, I would often read the lives of the Saints.  But when I became a teenager, I felt like I could no longer relate to them.  I read them and then felt like I ended up with a statue, not a real life person.  The saints were way too perfect for me.  But then I realized that it wasn't their fault.  It was the fault of their enthusiastic authors.

"There is no harm to the Saints if their faults are shown as well as their virtues.  But great harm is done to everybody by the hagiographers who slur over the faults, be it for the purpose of honoring the saints...or through fear of diminishing our reverence of their holiness." - St. Francis de Sales. 

Saints were once sinners too.  Yep. Like us, saints were once sinners, but unlike most of us, they did something concrete about it.  They changed.  They were haunted by goodness and began hunting for it. 

The beatitudes are all about changing the way we see ourselves in the world.  The stories of the Saints are all about what happens when these changes take place. 

When we change for God, we change for good; and when we change for good we change ourselves and our world.   

I'm no saint.  That's true.  But it is also a giant leap towards sainthood.  

We have all been called to be saints; that is, to be "sane people in an insane world" (G.K. Chesterton).  The saints are proof that we can change for the better, regardless of how many times we fail and fall.  We just cannot ever give up.  We have to continue to seek holiness and desire it more and more.  Michelangelo, once prayed:  "Lord, grant that I may desire more than I can accomplish."  Let us pray for this as well. 

Mediocrity is the guillotine of saints.  Comfort is a lethal injection.  Be weary of comfort.  Be suspicious of an easy life.  Heaven is not on earth.  Don't look for it there.  Rather, continue to always hunger and thirst for what is right, good and holy. Never be satisfied.  Instead, be satisfied with starting over and over again.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.

Perfection is not impossible, but it does take a life time.

Happy All Saints Day!