Homily for all Saints day by Fr. Gábor
(Please read first: Apocalypse 7:2-4. 9-14; 61 John 3:1-3; Mathew 5:1-12)
Last Friday at St. Columba’s we watched an excellent talk by Bishop Robert Barron,
entitled as ‘Untold Blessings’ with the subtitle: ‘The three ways to holiness’.
He talked about the 1st way to holiness, which is about finding the centre of our life. He
used a circular stained glass window to describe this path, in which Christ is at the centre.
If you have a close look you also see the 12 apostles around Jesus, and as you go further
towards the rim of the circle you see the Saints; all of them placed around Jesus.
This stained glass window beautifully and in a very simple way tells us that holiness
starts with putting Jesus back into the centre of our lives, or rather finding Him there, as
he is always there.
The window also speaks about harmony. If you look at this circular window it radiates
harmony, peace and beauty, because it is symmetrical. Holiness radiates a sense of
harmony and peace. Those whose life is centred on Christ experience His peace, which
the world cannot give, and they gently radiate His peace; a peace that Jesus radiates when
he is found asleep in the boat on the stormy sea. Those at peace in Christ do not fret even
when their lives are in danger, or when they lose something precious.
The window also tells us that when Christ is in the centre, beauty emerges. Mother
Theresa is a great example of it. She wasn’t a particularly beautiful woman when you
looked at her, but her love, strength of faith and determination to pour out Christ’s love
upon the poor and the neglected made her beautiful inside and that beauty radiated and
made her an attractive personality.
Although there are loads of images in this circular window its arrangement, its design is
very simple, so it radiates simplicity. This is true of the saints as well; their lives were
simple in that they simply wanted to serve people in the spirit of the Beatitudes. I
remember from the Mother Theresa film, which we watched a couple of months ago how
determined she was: it didn’t matter to her what race or religion people belonged to, she
just simply wanted to bring Christ’s love to them. She wasn’t worried about what people
thought about her actions, despite that the local priest warned her that if she helped the
sick of the Muslims the Hindus would complain, and if she helped Hindus the Muslims
would complain. She just went out into the streets and helped whoever needed care, food
and medical attention. The same was true of St. Columba, our patron saint: he had one
single mission in life, to bring the Good news of Christ’s love to the people of the British
Isles, and nothing could derail him in bringing his mission to fulfilment.
The circular stained glass window is also colourful, but you can only see its colours when
the sun shines through it. Without light you cannot see its sheer beauty and simplicity.
This is true of the saints as well. We need the gifts of the Holy Spirit to be able to show
the beauty of our lives in Christ.
The glue or mortar that keeps the windows together also symbolises the Holy Spirit. It is
in Him that we are built up strongly into the body of Christ and form the communion of
Saints.
If you want to build such a beautiful window you also need a building manual. The
Beatitudes, which we heard from Jesus through the Gospel reading, is the spiritual
instruction or programme for building such a beautiful circular window in a spiritual way.
The essence of the Beatitudes is: do not become addicted to anything less than the love of
God.
Blessed are the poor; in other words be poor in spirit and do not fill your minds and
hearts with anything less than God’s love, because St. Augustine says:
"You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you."
Blessed are those who weep or mourn! Jesus challenges us not to be addicted to good
feelings; they are good, but they come and go. Having said that He doesn’t want us to be
gloomy and mourn all the time. He just wants us to value suffering when true love really
demands it. Look at the cross of Jesus and you will understand why he says: ‘Blessed are
those who weep’. If you only like good feelings how can you be compassionate with and
connect with those in need and those who are suffering.
Blessed are you when people hate you and persecute you and speak all kinds of calumny
against you on my account. Again Jesus challenges us not to be addicted to the approval
of others. When I was in secondary school it was always a good feeling when my parents
praised me for taking good marks home. Another example is that it is difficult to listen to
people who complain about things in the church, because we all try our best to help each
other, but we have to learn to accept that we cannot please everybody, and remember
always that first of all we are to please Christ.
So let us keep this circular window as the target of our life and the beatitudes as the way
to achieve this target; ie. to become a Saint, deeply rooted in the love of Christ.