Deacon Tom Writes,
“ We Remember”
“From age to age you gather a people to yourself, so that from east to west a perfect offering may be made to the glory of your name.”
These words from Eucharistic Prayer III remind us that our faith unites us to one another throughout time and throughout space. Our Church honors as Saints those who have gone before us having lived exceptionally good and virtuous lives. They are models for us to imitate. We see them as sources of inspiration to follow in our attempt to live holy, decent and charitable lives. Names like St. Francis of Assisi, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Martin de Porres, St. Vincent de Paul, St. Damien of Molokai and more recently, St Teresa of Calcutta have earned their place in this ever-growing litany of inspirational lives. They inspire us in our efforts to serve one another as Christ taught us and to carry those crosses that come our way as we experience the challenges and disappointments of life. Their lives are an open book on the good that can be done, the hardships that can be endured, the forgiveness that can flow from the human heart when we allow God’s grace to enter into our lives and we willingly submit our will to the Divine. Today we witness many ordinary people who live each and every day with this same spirit of humility, who go through life making many sacrifices to ease the burdens of those around them. They do this because they are disciples of Jesus and they desire to follow in his footsteps. These too are saints in every sense of the word. As Pope Francis once commented, “holiness is not only a gift from God, it is the ‘common’ vocation of the disciples of Christ”.
We honor both categories of Saints today: those formerly named as such by the Church and those whose “ordinary lives” yield bountiful goodness. They are witnesses and practitioners of God’s love, mercy, and compassion. Yes, we remember the lives of the saints that we called our mothers and grandmothers, fathers and grandfathers, our husbands and wives and children who made a difference in our lives. We recall the joy and happiness they brought into our lives and into the lives of so many others. We recall their faith, their struggles and their love.
It is all these wonderful lives that make up the “Communion of Saints”. It is both the great and the small saints as John Nava depicted in his rendition of the “Communion of Saints” that we honor today. It is these men and women who have been “good and faithful servants” who have entered the Kingdom of God and who now faithfully pray for us, that we, like them, may rise to holiness. And for them we praise God!
Enjoy the day!
Deacon Tom
Image Credit: Los Angeles Cathedral Tapestry by John Nava
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