Nov. 1, 2012 Thursday: All Saints
Have you ever had an encounter with a heavenly person? Many people tell me that they had such an experience, but they are afraid to tell anybody else.
One person told me of his encounter with a heavenly person that changed his life. When he was 16 years old, he was working in a restaurant. Late one evening as he was wiping down the tables, he turned around to work on another table and there stood an old man he hadn’t seen before. He was dressed in a brown habit and was smiling, but this man quickly faded away right before his eyes. A co-worker entered the room and said, “Are you wearing a perfume? This room smells like roses.” A few years later when the young man entered a religious order, he came upon a photo of a friar, and the friar was the man that he had seen in that restaurant a few years earlier. Some years later, that friar was canonized a saint. Many years later after this young man became a priest, something else unusual happened to him. One day as he was celebrating mass he felt a sharp pain in his back and he began to lose his balance, almost falling down. He then felt someone grab his elbow to steady him. Throughout the whole mass, this priest felt someone holding his elbow. After the mass, the altar server came and asked the priest, “Father, are you wearing a new cologne? The bowl of water which you washed your hands in is smelling of roses. This priest knew that his heavenly saint was assisting him throughout the mass. That heavenly saint was Padre Pio.
We will never fully realize how many of our heavenly saints assist us daily. We may not have any devotion to them, but they are devoted to us. How is this possible? The Second Reading gives us an explanation: “Beloved, see what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. Beloved, we are God's children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him.” Because these heavenly saints are filled with the same love that the Father has for us, they care about us who are their brothers and sisters in Christ. Can you imagine a person who is so utterly selfless, thinking only about willing the good of the other? Well, he or she is a happy person, or so says Jesus in today’s Gospel. From the world’s point of view, a person who is poor, meek, and persecuted is a miserable person. But from God’s point of view, a person who takes their powerlessness to heart, recognizes that only God can help them, and trusts in God alone is a happy or blessed person. Such person also realizes then that all in heaven is saying, ‘got your back.’ What a privilege it is to know that Padre Pio and countless other saints are helping us in our daily life because we are so important to them and to God. We must remember that we are members of the communion of saints, yet we are called to live our lives in such away that we will one day live among the heavenly saints. We are to look to the saints, such as Padre Pio, and pattern our lives after their example. My friends, we must be compassionate and loving, even though we may face suffering, so that we too will live for all eternity with our Heavenly Father. Nothing, absolutely nothing, should detract us from our goal to be with Him in Heaven.
One person told me of his encounter with a heavenly person that changed his life. When he was 16 years old, he was working in a restaurant. Late one evening as he was wiping down the tables, he turned around to work on another table and there stood an old man he hadn’t seen before. He was dressed in a brown habit and was smiling, but this man quickly faded away right before his eyes. A co-worker entered the room and said, “Are you wearing a perfume? This room smells like roses.” A few years later when the young man entered a religious order, he came upon a photo of a friar, and the friar was the man that he had seen in that restaurant a few years earlier. Some years later, that friar was canonized a saint. Many years later after this young man became a priest, something else unusual happened to him. One day as he was celebrating mass he felt a sharp pain in his back and he began to lose his balance, almost falling down. He then felt someone grab his elbow to steady him. Throughout the whole mass, this priest felt someone holding his elbow. After the mass, the altar server came and asked the priest, “Father, are you wearing a new cologne? The bowl of water which you washed your hands in is smelling of roses. This priest knew that his heavenly saint was assisting him throughout the mass. That heavenly saint was Padre Pio.
We will never fully realize how many of our heavenly saints assist us daily. We may not have any devotion to them, but they are devoted to us. How is this possible? The Second Reading gives us an explanation: “Beloved, see what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. Beloved, we are God's children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him.” Because these heavenly saints are filled with the same love that the Father has for us, they care about us who are their brothers and sisters in Christ. Can you imagine a person who is so utterly selfless, thinking only about willing the good of the other? Well, he or she is a happy person, or so says Jesus in today’s Gospel. From the world’s point of view, a person who is poor, meek, and persecuted is a miserable person. But from God’s point of view, a person who takes their powerlessness to heart, recognizes that only God can help them, and trusts in God alone is a happy or blessed person. Such person also realizes then that all in heaven is saying, ‘got your back.’ What a privilege it is to know that Padre Pio and countless other saints are helping us in our daily life because we are so important to them and to God. We must remember that we are members of the communion of saints, yet we are called to live our lives in such away that we will one day live among the heavenly saints. We are to look to the saints, such as Padre Pio, and pattern our lives after their example. My friends, we must be compassionate and loving, even though we may face suffering, so that we too will live for all eternity with our Heavenly Father. Nothing, absolutely nothing, should detract us from our goal to be with Him in Heaven.
