Sunday, November 1, 2015

All Saints Day, 2015

MATTHEW 5:1-12
OUR CATHOLIC CHURCH VENERATES SAINTS. WE DON'T WORSHIP THEM. UNTIL ABOUT THE TWELFTH CENTURY, SAINTS WERE PEOPLE WHO HAD DONE SOMETHING WHICH CAUGHT THE ATTENTION OF AT LEAST A FEW PEOPLE – MAYBE CURING ILLNESSES, MAYBE BEING MARTYRED, MAYBE BEING SUCCESSFUL MISSIONARIES OR FOUNDERS OF MONASTERIES OR DEFENDERS OF THE FAITH. SOME WERE KINGS AND QUEENS. BUT PEOPLE SAW IN THEM SOMETHING OF JESUS CHRIST, AND BEGAN TO ASK THE SAINT TO INTERCEDE WITH GOD. A FEW OF THESE EVENTUALLY BECAME VENERATED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE CHURCH, AND THEY CONTINUE TO BE EVEN TODAY – SAINT LAWRENCE, SAINT LUCY, SAINT NICHOLAS, TO NAME A FEW.
BUT IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY MAKING SAINTS BECAME THE PREROGATIVE OF THE POPE, AND BY THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY THE CURRENT PROCESS WAS CODIFIED. PEOPLE WHO WEREN'T MARTYRS HAD TO HAVE LIVED LIVES WORTHY OF IMITATION AND HAD TO HAVE TWO MIRACLES THAT HAD BEEN DECLARED AS MIRACLES BY SPECIAL ADVISORS TO THE POPE. THE MIRACLES WERE CONSIDERED TO BE GOD'S APPROVAL OF THE CANONIZATION. AT THAT POINT IN A SOLEMN CEREMONY THE PERSON WAS DECLARED A SAINT. NAVIGATING THE BEAUROCRACY OF THE VATICAN TOOK TIME AND MONEY, AND MOST OF THE SAINTS SINCE THAT TIME HAVE BEEN MEMBERS OF RELIGIOUS ORDERS. SOMETIMES A DIOCESE WOULD SPONSOR THE PROCESS FOR A PARTICULARLY NOTEWORTHY PRIEST OR BISHOP. VERY FEW “ORDINARY” PEOPLE MADE THE CUT.
RECENTLY IN A FIRST, POPE FRANCIS CANONIZED A MARRIED COUPLE, LOUIS AND ZELIE MARTIN. I THINK THEY HAVE PARTICULAR RELEVANCE TO OUR TIME. LOUIS TRAINED AS A WATCHMAKER, AND ZELIE WAS SKILLED IN MAKING LACE. THE TWO OF THEM MANAGED TO MAKE A PRETTY GOOD LIVING AT THEIR TRADES, AND WERE COMFORTABLY MIDDLE CLASS IN THE FRANCE OF THEIR TIME. THEY HAD NINE CHILDREN, FOUR OF WHOM DIED IN EARLY CHILDHOOD. THE FIVE WHO SURVIVED ALL BECAME NUNS, ONE OF WHOM IS SAINT THERESE OF LISEAUX, THE LITTLE FLOWER, A DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH. ONE OF HER SISTERS, LEONIE, IS CURRENTLY A CANDIDATE FOR CANONIZATION.
ZELIE SAW LOUIS WHEN SHE WAS CROSSING A BRIDGE, AND HEARD AN INNER VOICE TELL HER THAT HE WAS THE ONE FOR HER. SHORTLY AFTERWARDS, THEY MET, BECAME ENGAGED, AND MARRIED THREE MONTHS LATER. THEY WERE KNOWN AS PEOPLE WHO WOULD GO OUT OF THEIR WAY TO HELP ANYONE WITH A PROBLEM. FROM THERESE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY WE KNOW THAT THEY PRESIDED OVER A VERY HAPPY HOME, BUT ONE IN WHICH PRAYER AND DISCIPLINE WERE IMPORTANT. IN THE WAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY, THE GERMAN ARMY BRIEFLY HELD PARTS OF NORTHEASTERN FRANCE, DURING WHICH TIME LOUIS AND ZELIE WERE FORCED TO ACCOMMODATE NINE GERMAN SOLDIERS IN THEIR HOME. THEY IMPRESSED THEM BY TREATING THEM WITH RESPECT AND DIGNITY, EVEN THOUGH IT MEANT HARDSHIP FOR THEIR OWN CHILDREN.
WHEN THERESE' WAS 4 AND ONE HALF, HER MOTHER DIED OF BREAST CANCER, FROM WHICH SHE HAD SUFFERED FOR OVER A YEAR. LOUIS SOLD HIS BUSINESS AND MOVED TO LISEAUX. WHEN THERESE' WAS 15 AND HAD BEEN ACCEPTED TO ENTER THE CARMELITE ORDER, LOUIS SUFFERED THE FIRST OF SEVERAL STROKES. DURING HIS LAST FIVE YEARS HE WAS NOT ABLE TO TAKE CARE OF HIMSELF AND COULD BARELY SPEAK. HE ALSO SUFFERED FROM DEMENTIA.
I THINK WE ALL CAN SEE ASPECTS OF OUR OWN LIVES REFLECTED IN THE LIVES OF THIS COUPLE. THEY WERE NOT CELIBATE; THEY WERE NOT POOR. THEY HAD TIMES OF JOY AND THE BLESSING OF A CLOSE-KNIT FAMILY. THEY HAD GREAT SORROWS, WITH THE LOSS OF FOUR CHILDREN. BOTH OF THEM WORKED IN TRADES. LOUIS LOST HIS WIFE TO CANCER; HE HIMSELF SPENT HIS LAST YEARS INCREASINGLY HELPLESS AND ILL.
THEIR DAUGHTERS AND OTHERS WHO KNEW THEM DESCRIBED A COUPLE WHO LIVED EXEMPLARY LIVES AND AN EXEMPLARY MARRIAGE. THEY ARE CERTAINLY PEOPLE WHO CAN INSPIRE MARRIED COUPLES.
TODAY JESUS DESCRIBES HOW TO BE BLESSED, HOW TO BE A SAINT. THERE ARE EIGHT BEATITUDES. THE FIRST FOUR DEAL WITH CIRCUMSTANCES YOU FIND YOURSELF IN – BEING POOR, MOURNING, BEING AT THE LOW END OF THE SOCIAL LADDER, BEING THE OBJECT OF INJUSTICE. JESUS SAYS THAT IN THESE CIRCUMSTANCES, YOU CAN FIND BLESSINGS, AND YOU CAN BE ASSURED THAT IN GOD'S TIME THINGS WILL BE REVERSED. THE SECOND FOUR DEAL WITH CHOICES WE MAKE, ALSO WHICH CAN BE THE SOURCE OF BLESSINGS – BEING MERCIFUL, STRUGGLING TO OVERCOME OUR TENDENCIES TO SIN; BEING PEACEMAKERS, AND TRYING TO BRING ABOUT JUSTICE. AND JESUS PROMISES THAT EVEN WHEN IT LOOKS LIKE OUR EFFORTS ARE NOT BEARING FRUIT, THEY WILL. AND HE PROMISES THAT WHAT WE DO FOR HIS SAKE WILL NOT GO UNREWARDED, ALTHOUGH PERSECUTION CAN BE EXPECTED, AND BEING ONE OF HIS FOLLOWERS IS NO GUARANTEE OF A LIFETIME OF HAPPINESS AND PROSPERITY – IN FACT, THE GOSPEL PASSAGE SEEMS TO IMPLY THE OPPOSITE.
LOUIS AND ZELIE MARTIN LIVED THE BEATITUDES AND AS THEY WENT THROUGH THEIR ORDINARY LIVES ACCEPTED ALL THE JOYS AND SUFFERINGS THAT CAME THEIR WAY FOR THE SAKE OF THE MASTER THEY SERVED. SAINT THERESE WAS TO WRITE: "GOD GAVE ME A FATHER AND A MOTHER WHO WERE MORE WORTHY OF HEAVEN THAN OF EARTH". SHE DESCRIBED HER PARENTS AS "PARENTS WITHOUT EQUAL, WORTHY OF HEAVEN, HOLY GROUND PERMEATED WITH THE PERFUME OF PURITY."
ALL OF US CATHOLICS SHOULD PICK A FEW SAINTS TO KNOW WELL AND TO BE OUR INTERCESSORS IN HEAVEN. IT'S GOOD TO KNOW THEM AS REAL HUMAN BEINGS WHO PUT UP WITH THE SAME THINGS WE PUT UP WITH, WHO SUFFERED JUST AS WE WILL SUFFER, AND WHO ARE WORTH IMITATING. SAINT PAUL URGED HIS CORINTHIAN CONGREGATION TO BE IMITATORS OF HIM, JUST AS HE WAS AN IMITATOR OF CHRIST. THAT'S WHAT SAINTS ARE FOR; THEY SHOW US BY THEIR LIVES HOW TO IMITATE CHRIST..