All Saints Day

By Fr. Dan Riley, OFM:
Mike Fenn is one of our Franciscan Sojourners and “Guardian” of this gathering of Bonaventure women and men, spouses, friends and friars. He offers us here a rich personal and timely reflection. Michael, father of three young women with his wife Julie, have been living and seeking to live even more of our Franciscan Gospel life since their St. Bonaventure University days.

Enjoy his reflection and enter into the conversation he has begun for us, lending your own words and wisdom for others to “taste and see” God’s goodness shining forth in ourselves and in the world.

Mike helps us know that we share, even now, in God’s holiness and are invited to live it even more as we celebrate All Saints and All Souls days.

*********************
Readings:

Reading 1 Rv 7:2-4, 9-14

I, John, saw another angel come up from the East,
holding the seal of the living God.
He cried out in a loud voice to the four angels
who were given power to damage the land and the sea,
“Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees
until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.”
I heard the number of those who had been marked with the seal,
one hundred and forty-four thousand marked
from every tribe of the children of Israel.

After this I had a vision of a great multitude,
which no one could count,
from every nation, race, people, and tongue.
They stood before the throne and before the Lamb,
wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.
They cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne,
and from the Lamb.”

All the angels stood around the throne
and around the elders and the four living creatures.
They prostrated themselves before the throne,
worshiped God, and exclaimed:

“Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving,
honor, power, and might
be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”

Then one of the elders spoke up and said to me,
“Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?”
I said to him, “My lord, you are the one who knows.”
He said to me,
“These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress;
they have washed their robes
and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb.”

Reading 2 1 Jn 3:1-3

Beloved:
See what love the Father has bestowed on us
that we may be called the children of God.
Yet so we are.
The reason the world does not know us
is that it did not know him.
Beloved, we are God’s children now;
what we shall be has not yet been revealed.
We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is.
Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure,
as he is pure.

Gospel Mt 5:1-12a

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain,
and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him.
He began to teach them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the land.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the clean of heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you
and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.
Rejoice and be glad,
for your reward will be great in heaven.”

*********************
By Mike Fenn:
In a few weeks I’ll be heading back to the NYC area to attend my 20th year high school reunion. For the most part I’m really looking forward to catching up with old friends, and share stories of what were great years in our lives. On some level I’ve already begun thinking about how I will answer the obvious “So what have you been up to?” question.

On the surface I’ll be able to get through the small talk banter, but the question also hits me in a deeper way, as if God is asking, “Really, Mike what HAVE you been doing with the first 20 years of your adult life??!!” That’s the part that’s had me feeling a little uneasy these last few weeks – aside from the extra pounds I’ve put on since my last reunion!

I think this perspective is why the words of the second reading have struck me so poignantly today. They are truly words of encouragement from John. He reminds us that we are children of God, yet to be revealed to the world. No matter our age, we are always being formed by the Holy Word and God’s Grace. We know there will be times when we stumble along our walk through life, where we don’t make the decisions of a Saint. Yet John shows confidence that ultimately when God is revealed we will be like Him, provided we hold on to the faith that binds each of us together.

I’m fortunate enough to live within 90 minutes driving distance from the Mt. Irenaeus and made it down to mass last Sunday along with two of my daughters. Fr. Lou’s homily struck me and it ties in nicely with our All Saints celebration. Lou shared that as Believers we are divine based on “invitation and participation.”

The invitation part is easy, and can be a little dangerous on its own. I can sometimes sit in the chapel and think how good I am to be spending my free time at the Mountain. I know accepting the invitation needs to be coupled with the participation element. What am I doing after I drive down the Mountain road and join the rest of the world? Am I walking the talk, am I following the rules Jesus gave to us during the Sermon on the Mount? And while I know we can beat ourselves up at times when we have fallen out of step, I now take comfort in John’s words: By holding on to that hope that I am God’s Child, I may share in the Purity that is God’s.

*********************
By Fr. Dan Riley, OFM:
Our hope, as Mike points out is God’s promise in St. John’s words, “We are God’s children!” now. We know that in especially painful or confusing times it is difficult to see each other and ourselves in this way, as images of God, God’s children now. This is the vantage point, the scene and scenery of "blessedness" that Jesus teaches his disciples amidst the "crowds." This is why he went "up on the mountain" as we read in Matthew’s Gospel for "All Saints Day."

A number of years ago Terri McFadden Marrie brought to us "The Mountain Song." Steven Curtis Chapman tells us in this song that we go to the mountain to "rest, learn and grow." I think Mike lifts this up for us and invites us to do the same … to find a “mountain” possibly away from the Mountain where we might ride in a car to work, walk home or a late break after our children have gone to bed to savor again the goodness of being members of one family - to be “God’s children.”

We are welcomed to the table of God’s goodness to celebrate it already and share it with others. To “rest, learn and grow” is a simple movement in holiness … we are already holy … saints of God … sharing in the great banquet, the expansive table, the “playground of paradise,” the “communion of saints.”

With Mike’s reflections and the Scriptures before us we might wonder as we remember all the “holy ones” – our deceased relatives and friends and the others that we now call “saints” and who have gone before us as well – how their lives are “invitations to participation.”

• Do you now “see” yourself with “every nation, race, people and tongue” standing before “the Lamb” as God’s children now. (Rev. 7:2-4, 9-14)

• What will open my eyes so that I might both see and hear this invitation to participation in this “holiness” already ours and inviting us to somehow live and share in today, do I hear us called to “rejoice and be glad!”? (Rev.)

(Click "Post a Comment" below to share).

(Mt. Irenaeus Web Site)