Homily for All Saints Day; we need a hero!

Who are your heroes?

I’ve had plenty; there was Superman and Batman, a cartoon character named Johnny Quest, John Wayne; both the cowboy and the war hero, sports stars like Archie Manning, Danny Abramowicz (the early Saints) and my favorite Pistol Pete Maravich!

I also gave hero status to the astronauts when they walked on the moon and I’ve always thought of our men and women in the armed services as heroes.

We all learned a lot about heroes during the September 11th terrorist event and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Heroes, for the most part, have been those who could capture our imagination and thrill us with feats of great accomplishments!

As people of faith, who are our heroes? Do we ever consider the Saints as heroes? And I’m not talking about those 6-0 Saints, although they have played like heroes this year.

I’m talking about those special heroes that we commemorate today on All Saints Day; the men and women who have gone before us and have been declared Saints by the church. This feast day is celebrated every year, a holy day of obligation, because of the importance of the communion of Saints. Today, the church declares that the Church of heaven and the Church of earth are one. All live in Jesus Christ, including the Saints who intercede for us as we ask them to join their prayers with ours.

What is this communion of Saints? Every time we pray the Apostles Creed we say: “I believe in the communion of Saints.” We are saying that these Saints are more than just holy people with a title or examples for us to follow. While these things are true, the communion of Saints is the way that strengthens the unity of the whole Church. The Catechism states in paragraph 957: “our communion with the Saints joins us to Christ.” These heroes help us in becoming closer to Christ!

Saints, down through the centuries, come from every nation, race, people and tongue, as we hear in today’s first reading from Revelation. And we, like the Saints can proclaim: “salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne and the Lamb.”

Think about it; we all have prayed with Saints. We have our favorites, we are named for Saints, we have patron Saints, we add a Saint name at our Confirmation. We learn about the Saints as children. We pray the litany of Saints. Our church parish is named for a Saint, St. Jane de Chantal. Our mission is named for St. Michael. One of our ministries is named for St. Vincent de Paul.

We have in our own day and time some modern day Saints. We have the example of St. Maximilian Kolbe, who died in the concentration camps of World War II, St. Gianna Molla, a mother who died in 1962 not long after giving birth to a child she was told to abort due to cancer. And we have St. Padre Pio, the priest with deep spirituality who died in 1968.

Perhaps soon we will have Saints who have lived in our own lifetimes. Mother Theresa has already been declared blessed. Pope John Paul II is believed to be on the way to sainthood. In our own diocese, we continue to await the word on Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos and Mother Henriette DeLisle.

What makes a Saint? How does the church determine sainthood? We all know that the Church examines the lives of those proposed for sainthood for heroic virtues, piety and spirituality. One miracle, attributed to that person, once confirmed, leads to beatification and a second miracle to sainthood. But also, let’s take a look at today’s Gospel.

In St. Matthew’s description of the Sermon on the Mount, we hear the beatitudes. These are eight teachings of Jesus that the Saints obviously followed and we can follow too. Jesus challenges us to be poor in spirit, to mourn, be meek, hunger and thirst for righteousness, be merciful, have a clean heart, be a peacemaker and be willing to be persecuted for the sake of righteousness. These are saint-like qualities. And Jesus promises, among other things, that we can claim the kingdom of heaven if we follow these blessings and our reward will be great in heaven.

Notice, we don’t need x-ray vision, or super human strength, or be able to leap a tall building in a single bound. No, we can imitate the lives of the Saints. We can turn to heroes, not just of this world, but those who are happy in Heaven with God.

In the week ahead, I’m going to pray with these eight beatitudes and ask God to help me become like the Saints. I need a hero and thanks to God and His Church, I have many to come to my aid. And these Saints have a winning streak far greater than 6-0!