On this first weekend of November 2014, which has the first and the second day of the month, we both celebrate on each day ALL SAINTS’ DAY and ALL SOULS’ DAY, respectively. And in our 9:30 a.m. Mass this Sunday, we will see the different portrayal of the SAINTS through the pageantry of the children organized by the Women at the Well Ministry. And so…let the SAINTS GO MARCHIN’ IN!!!
If we recall in our Intermediate Catechism, we have three divisions of the church namely: Church Triumphant (those who are in Heaven already); Church Expectant or Suffering (those who are still in
Purgatory); Church Militant (those who are still on Earth/World=we).
St. Paul occasionally addressed the early Christians as “saints” (meaning, called to a life of holiness or sainthood). May be this can be interpreted as “saints-in-the-making “(prospective saints). This might not yet mean to be the CANONIZED saints that we all know, but one can be SAINTLY in one’s ways and good examples.
As we have this weekend devoted for the SAINTS and FAITHFUL DEPARTED, we thank God for the gift of ETERNAL life. We thank the SAINTS of the PAST, and our FAITHFUL DEPARTED of the PAST, for they still live in our hearts in the PRESENT time.
Our PRAYERS are needed for our loved ones’ souls who might still need to be purge (purified). They are not in hell but they still have to undergo purgation. As one theologian said, “it’s like they are walking from a ‘distance’ to heaven but they don’t become nearer unless we offer prayers for them.”
These past few days we saw children in HALLOWEEN Costumes, some with frightening faces/unusual-scary images. Now, it’s about time to NEUTRALIZE that as we look on the BEAUTIFUL faces of the SAINTS in our Pageantry.
It is a great practice to HONOR the DEAD. But one idea came in recently like, why don’t we start HONORING the LIVING (while they’re still with us)? In Hawaii, where I was assigned in the past, they honor annually people who did significant “heroic or saintly simple ways” for their communities, and they call them, “The Island Treasures.” Make sense.
Our HOPE then is not in this present life only, for God puts in the heart of every living person the desire for unending life and happiness. Death claims each of us at the appointed time, but our hope and desire is to see God face to face. Jesus promises that those who accept him as their Lord and Savior and submit to his word will be raised up to immortal life with him in the Day of Judgment.
We thank the SAINTS for their good examples and became brilliant models of faith to us. We thank our departed loved ones for their goodness that we still cherish in our hearts. We love them. There is a saying: “There are only TWO GREAT TRAGEDIES in LIFE, namely, if you don’t love; and if you don’t say to those whom you love that you love them.”
And let me use this opportunity to THANK you ALL for your prayers and presence during my INSTALLATION as your pastor last Sunday at the 11:30 a.m. Mass. I THANK YOU ALL…and I LOVE YOU ALL.
Fr. Ted
