What We Are Now ... And What We Can Become

Many thanks to my friend Don for sending me this link ... the lucky guy, he was there to hear this homily given on the All Saints Vigil. It works today just as well as on that cusp of a feast day. This is the bit that hit me between the eyes, but, of course, do go read the whole thing.

Neither should not be discouraged by the stark contrast between what we are now and what the saints came to be. No saint ever began at the end. St. Augustine began with the prayer, “Lord, give me chastity, but not now.” St. Jerome was told by our Lord that he was more of a Ciceronian than a Christian. And St. Theresa of Avila was a lukewarm religious for 18 years.

No saint began in the ecstasy of love which they now experience. They all began only with the mustard seed of faith, and a clear call from God. With that, they simply acted in accordance with reason.

They made the only rational choice available to them. They simply believed what they knew to be the testimony of the Eternally Begotten Son of God.

They simply understood something every child understands: Truth himself cannot lie. And like a very small child, who has not yet learned how to doubt, who latches onto his Father’s finger, with all the force of his fragile fist, so did the saints grasp on to God and let Him lead them – and sometimes carry them - wherever He willed. They trusted him when He told them that this is a love story. They believed Him when He said, “I came that you might have life, and have it abundantly.” Having believed, they tasted. And having tasted, they fell in love.

We are surrounded by darkness, the darkness of atheistic nihilism and the culture of death, which proclaims that we came from nothing, and that we are going back to nothing, and that human life is ultimately meaningless, marriage is meaningless, everything is meaningless - and that the best we can do is seek some small pleasure or distraction in the passing trifles of this meaningless world, but, thanks be to God, this darkness has not overcome the light which shines within our souls.

We also believe. ...

It is for this reason that we pester and nag those we know who do not believe. It is not because we are right ... it is because, being in love, we want the whole world to be in love as we are. We want that joy and love to be a part of the lives of those who we, in turn, love so much. Having found a good thing, indeed the best of all possible things, we want to pass it on ...