Only in the trust in God and the gift of self transforms fears to joy, hunger for justice to satisfaction and death to resurrection.
How do we arrived at holiness? “It is by receiving it as grace from God and by living the Beatitudes” says Bishop Ryan in his homily on the Solemnity of the All Saints at Mt. Carmel Catholic Cemetery.
The bishop, the clergy and the religious sisters joined hundreds of the faithful sitting or standing next to the graves of their deceased family members. This annual celebration of the Mass in the cemetery is perhaps the largest attended liturgy of the year.
Every year, in the days leading to All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, families cleaned, repainted the graves of their loved ones. “Memories fade but the feelings that came out of these memories remain”, says the bishop.
In his homily, Bishop Ryan reminded the faithful of our universal call to holiness. “We are called to holiness and that with God’s grace we can arrived to the point where we not only can say that we are children of God but also lived as children of God because we are brothers and sisters of Christ Jesus.”
The Gospel on the Beatitudes, (which is the magna carta of Christianity) is according to Bishop Ryan, always runs the risk of remaining a contradiction. “How can those who mourn be blessed? How can those who long for justice be blessed? How can those who are persecuted and insulted be blessed? Every beatitude runs the risk of remaining a contradiction if behind each of these, we do not see the person of Jesus Christ, who is the first in the list of the poor in spirit, the meek, the merciful, the pure of heart. If behind every beatitude we put the crucified and risen Lord, then we understand these beatitudes in the light of the death and resurrection of Christ.”
The Solemnity of All Saints, does not only commemorate those saints who are included in the liturgical calendar. Bishop Ryan reiterated that in this celebration, the Church also remembers those multitudes of peoples who live their lives like the Gospel said: ‘poor in spirit, merciful, pure of heart and worker of peace’. Furthermore, this celebration also reminds us of those ‘saints’ who are in our midst, living the beatitudes right now.
