(All Saints’ Day 2019: This homily was given on November 1,
2019 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 Day 2019]
In one of his books Fr. Stephen Rossetti wrote the
following:
A survey was given to fifth-graders in which they were asked to rank in order the desirability of thirty-five careers. They were given such choices as doctor, teacher, lawyer, and others. They were asked to list in order which ones they most wanted to be. One of the thirty-five vocations listed was saint. Any idea where saint was listed by these boys and girls? It was second to last, thirty-fourth! The only less desirable position was garbage collector. In the minds of many, being a saint is only slightly more desirable than being a garbage collector. When asked why saint was listed so low, the children said that being a saint was a negative, unhappy life. (From “The Joy of Priesthood,” page 210.)
This is obviously one reason why churches aren’t filled to
the brim on All Saints’ Day! Too many
people think sanctity is boring! They
don’t see the concrete, practical benefits of striving to live a life of
holiness.
Apparently these men, women—and children—have forgotten
that in the next life there will ultimately be only 2 groups of people: the
saints and the damned! So if they don’t
want to be saints, what do they want to be?
What’s their ultimate goal? If
they’re consciously rejecting the path to heaven (because they think there’s no
fun to be had on the way there!), then what path are they currently on?
The other day I decided to sit down and write out some of
the many benefits of being a saint—just in case anyone here has the same
perspective as the fifth graders who took that survey mentioned by Fr.
Rossetti. Perhaps this will give some of
us a new outlook—a more positive
outlook—on the life of holiness, and therefore inspire us to pursue holiness
each and every day.
Benefit #1 of being a saint: You need less “Excedrin”; that
is to say, you avoid a lot of the
headaches that people who commit serious sins are forced to deal with. Because we live in a media culture that
glorifies sin, many people think it’s cool to fight and get drunk and fornicate
and cheat and lie. After all, men and
women who do these things are often portrayed in a positive light in movies and
on television. But when you look at the
matter objectively—and honestly—what you see is that sins like these always
come with a price tag! And not only in
the afterlife! Even on this side of the
grave, you pay a price! These violations
of God’s law destroy marriages and families and everything else we hold dear as
human beings. As Paul put it in Romans
6, “The wages of sin is death.”
Benefit #2 of being a saint: You have a goal in life! And not just any goal! You have the right goal, namely, heaven! Consequently you’re not like so many people
today who go through life with no sense of direction, meaning or purpose.
Benefit #3 of being a saint: You have a sense of your dignity and worth as
a human person (because you know that Almighty God, the Creator of the
universe, was willing to die for you
and for your sins on a cross!). Hence, you don’t have the self-image problem
that plagues many serious sinners.
Benefit #4 of being a saint: You have the right set of
priorities, which is so crucial for successful living. You know what’s really important, and what
isn’t.
Benefit #5 of being a saint: You can identify spiritual
poison! In other words, you can identify
those realities—those ideas, those attitudes, those friendships, etc.—that will
harm your relationship with God as well as your relationships with others. And, of course, if you can identify these
realities that are spiritually poisonous, you can take the necessary steps to
avoid them.
Benefit #6 of being a saint: You have the ability to keep your problems in
perspective, because you understand that no trial will last forever, and you
know that your God is so powerful that he can bring good even out of your worst
suffering. As St. Paul said, “For those
who love God all things work together for good.”
And finally, benefit #7 of being a saint: You have heaven
waiting for you when you die—a place of happiness and joy beyond your wildest
imagining; a place where, as St. John tells us in today’s second reading, we
“will see [God] as he is”! Once again,
the words of St. Paul: “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it entered
into the mind of man what God has prepared for those who love him.”
So there they are: 7 clear, practical benefits of being a
saint. (Someone needs to tell those
fifth graders who took that survey!) And
the good news is: this is not an
exhaustive list! There are lots and lots
of other benefits that I could have mentioned.
These, believe it or not, were the ones I thought of in about two or
three minutes as I was preparing this homily!
Today in the Church we honor all those men and women who
have received their eternal reward because they believed that resisting sin and
striving for holiness each and every day was worth the effort. They understood the benefits.
May God help us to believe
what these saints believed and to live
like these saints lived—because they were right!
