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| Mark Wahlberg |
(All
Saints’ Day 2017: This homily was given on November 1, 2017 at St. Pius X
Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani.
Read Revelation 7: 2-4, 9-14; 1 John 3: 1-3; Matthew 5: 1-12a.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: All Saints 2017]
I
want to begin my homily on this All Saints’ Day by speaking about Mark
Wahlberg, the well-known actor. Now if
you know anything about him—and his personal and professional history—you might
find it a little odd that somebody would use his name and the word “saints” in
the same sentence!
But
that’s precisely the point.
Wahlberg
has become a practicing Catholic in recent years, but prior to that he was definitely
not what you would call a “good role model” for our youth. Among other things he was involved with
gangs, he spent some time in jail for assaulting a Vietnamese immigrant, and he
made some bad decisions in terms of the roles he played in feature films. Last month he spoke at a Catholic youth
conference out in Chicago, and there he said, “I just always hope that God is a
movie fan and also forgiving, because I’ve made some poor choices in my past.” When he was asked about particular movies
that he regrets starring in, he mentioned “Boogie Nights” specifically—a film
in which he played a porn star.
And
this is a good thing! It’s good that he
feels this kind of regret for some of the roles he’s taken in the past. It shows that he’s developing a good
conscience.
Now
he’s got a long way to go—even his views on things like so-called “gay
marriage” need some refining. But it
does seem that he has the desire to move forward, the desire to grow closer to
God, the desire to become “the best possible version of himself”—the desire, in
other words, to be a saint.
Which
is the first step to becoming one!
When
he goes to Mass today, on this holy day of obligation, I hope and pray that his
desire for sanctity will intensify—because that’s one of the purposes of this
celebration! It’s one of the reasons we
have All Saints’ Day on the Church’s liturgical calendar. We gather here to honor our brothers and
sisters who’ve already made it to heaven; our brothers and sisters who lived
the Beatitudes, and who are now a part of that vast crowd that St. John saw in
that vision we heard about in today’s first reading from Revelation 7. We gather, in other words to honor ALL the
saints of heaven: the canonized and the un-canonized.
But,
in honoring them the Church wants us also to
be inspired by them! The Church
wants us to be inspired by them to pursue holiness ourselves.
Mark
Wahlberg needs that inspiration (especially in the environment he lives and
works in). But we all need it too,
because we’re living right now in a culture that’s constantly pulling us away
from God and his truth.
All you saints of God, pray for Mark
Wahlberg and for us, that we will have a deep, strong, unwavering desire to
become saints ourselves. And pray that
we will ACT on this desire each and every day of our lives. Amen.
