Today we celebrate a basic point in our mission and vocation as Christians: we are all called to live as saints.
One of the wonderful things about being Catholic is that there is a patron saint for every imaginable human activity, profession, or trade. Today’s mass is for our parish school. So, let’s look at some school related saints: the patron saint for teachers is: St. John Baptist de La Salle or St. Elizabeth Ann Seton; for students, St Joseph of Cupertino; for administrators, St. Matthew, St. Thomas More, or St. Moses the Black, for scholars, St. Thomas Aquinas, for librarians, St Jerome, for cooks, St. Lawrence, for athletes, St. Sebastian, for young people, St. Carlo Acutis or St. José Sanchez del Río, and for musicians, St. Cecilia. All those saints help us all remember that we are all called to live as saints and that whatever we are doing, wherever we are, saints always surround us.
That is the communion of saints. But an even more wonderful point of our life as Christian is that the example of saintly lives comes to us not just the from the saints who have gone before us to heaven, but also from all the saints who are at our side every day: parents, grand-parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, family, friends, good neighbors, classmates, teachers, teammates, catechists, and faith formation volunteers – everyone of good will who sacrifices their lives and time for our good and the good of others. Not all the saints are officially recognized by the Church or have an official day on the liturgical calendar. But we all know that we have received our faith from saints and that we have saints at our sides our everyday lives – our family and good neighbors. They are constantly showing us the way of faith. This too is the communion of saints: all of us living out our vocation to be saints in our daily lives. Thanks to the saints who surround us, our family and friends, we are here today celebrating our faith.
The beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, which we heard in today’s Gospel, calls us all to remember our vocation to live out the communion of the saints by centering our lives on others, giving ourselves in service to others. The local Christian community, along with the saints who have gone before us, is an expression of the communion of the saints. Each one of the Beatitudes in today’s Gospel calls us to a deeper expression of our life given in service to others. This is how we brighten our lives and our souls. A life dedicated to the Cross through service, generosity, and sacrifice is our common vocation as saints who are surrounded by saints. As Catholics we live in the communion of the saints every day of our lives. Following the example of our older brothers and sisters in the faith, the saints in heaven, and the example all the saints at our sides daily, our mission and vocation is to show signs of saintly life – a life of service.
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.
Image: https://www.stkatherineofsiena.org/2017/10/masses-for-solemnity-of-all-saints.html