…Friendship with the Saints…
(from a Nov. 1, 1987 homily)

I think that we need very much in this modern age to read the authentic lives of canonized Saints if we are to keep our sense of proportion and holiness and reverence in the presence of the things of God.  We need a sense of reverence, of awe, of wonder in our spiritual lives, and you will find these qualities in the lives of the Saints in their various ways of life and modes of expression.  We ought to feel at home with the Saints and to some extent even identify with certain of them according to our own inclinations under God’s influence.

It is true that we are sinners, and a sinner at first sight must inevitably feel awkward and out of place in the company of Saints.  A badly dressed guest at a wedding feels embarrassed.   All the Saints are round the Altar as we celebrate the Holy of Holies, what we call Holy Mass, and so often hardly notice the word holy and its implications.  As we are sinners, would it be a good idea and more fitting for us to slink away and hide in a dark corner?

No, we should not feel out of place.  We ought to feel unworthy in ourselves, very unworthy, as we take part, a real and personally involved part in Holy Mass, an action only fit for Saints.  But we are not out of place because we are members of the Communion of Saints.  We should be melted in humility and awe and reverence, but we should feel at home.  We were invited by Jesus, and He knows what we are like, and He still invites us, knowing what we are like now.

. . . God does not want a groveling worship even from the greatest sinner, unless that sinner loves his sins; but if that were so he would not really want to give glory to God as we do.

We belong to God and . . . are not to approach God in a timid way, as if He might explode with anger at our presumption.  We are to come to Him with very peaceful humility and repentance, but with great confidence and spiritual pleasure.  If Jesus has invited us to come to His Sacred Banquet, and He has done so, you may be sure that His greeting as He receives us in Communion will be extremely cordial.  It is something He has longed for because He really loves us, even as we are. 

“Think of the love that the Father has lavished on us by letting us be called God’s children; and that is what we are.”  . . . That is one reason surely that just before receiving Our Lord’s embrace in Holy Communion, we pray to God as “Our Father” and really mean what we say.  It is a form of address full of the love of Jesus, communicated to us so that we may love Our Father in heaven with great joy as we become one with His Only Begotten Son and join in His love for God.

Back to list

 

Website Design & Maintenance by Reach For It Media, Inc.