Nov. 1, 2020: All Saints
Someone said that a saint is a person who lives with her heart in the heavens and her hands deep in the dirt of this earth, planting seeds of faith, hope, and love in the souls that she encounters in the ordinary circumstances of life. A saint joyfully loves God and her neighbor so much so that she not only manages to live at both poles of heaven and earth, but also manages to attract other souls to model their lives after her. A saint knows intimately the love of God, the love so beautifully articulated in the well-beloved Gospel of John, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (Jn 3:16) A saint’s heart is so transformed by the sacrificial love of the Son of God the Cross that her life is nothing but giving away generously this amazing love of Christ. Yet even a saint has a beginning like a mustard seed. Once a soul gives God permission day by day to guide her and transform her, the tiny mustard seed becomes the magnificent tree to provide shade for other souls.
It was only recently that I learned about a little boy named Zach Bonner. He is now 22 years old, but his adventure with God began at the age of six. After watching on TV news about the homes destroyed by Hurricane Charley, Zach, then 6 years old, was inspired to do something for people who were suffering. Immediately he decided to put flyers in the neighborhood seeking donations for storm victims. Then the next day, he pulled his little red wagon door to door and collected 27 pickup trucks full of water. When his mom returned from work, she was amazed. She took him to see the emergency shelter where hurricane victims were staying. There he saw children his own age who were homeless because of the hurricane. That trip made a deep impression upon him. He read more about homeless children in the streets. He told his mom that he wanted to help the homeless kids. He said, "These kids don't have a home, they don't have a safe place to sleep at night. They're out on the streets not because they want to be, but because it's out of their control." With his mom’s help, he formed a non-profit foundation, at the age of 7, and named it “Little Red Wagon Foundation” to help fundraise for this cause. At the age of 10, he began a walk from his home in Tampa, Florida to Tallahassee, a 280 mile distance to raise awareness about homelessness among children. He told the primary school kids who invited him to speak to them, “Doing community service work is no more than coming up with an idea to help someone. You don’t have to have a lot of experience because when I started I was only 6.” Then at the age of 11, he walked from Atlanta, Georgia to the White House in Washington D.C. He didn’t stop there. At the age of 12, he walked from Tampa to Los Angeles, a trek of almost 2,500 miles which took him 6 months. He said in an interview, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Most people don’t walk a thousand miles, or 2,500, but … we all need to take that first step to get something big done. If I've helped even one homeless child, I hope I've accomplished that." This child understood that God gave him a mission. It did not matter how old he was or how much resources he had. God was teaching Zach to trust Him and follow Him one step at a time. Most of the time we will not see the impact or the results of our work. Perhaps, it’s God’s way of protecting us from pride, thinking that we have accomplished the work ourselves.
Do you want to know the secret to happiness while living here on earth? Jesus taught his disciples the secret to happiness in the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount. While his preaching and miracles attracted vast crowds, Jesus took his inner circle of disciples to the mountains to teach them lessons of the Kingdom of God. Happy or blessed, Jesus said, are the poor in spirit, the meek, the merciful, the pure of heart, the peacemakers, those who mourn, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, and those who are persecuted for the sake of Christ.
The values of happiness normally espoused by this world are nowhere to be seen in Jesus’ vision of happiness. Material security and earthly honor do not make us happy, Our Lord said. We know that everything is from God and that we’re merely stewards of what belongs to God. Do we have that attitude of detachment? What can we strive to let go so that our heart and mind are free to help others? Jesus also said that those who cause division and confusion by words and actions do not enjoy happiness. Rather, can we be the one who enters into conflict to bring peace to the conflicted parties?
Our Lord said to his disciples, “The Kingdom of God is within you.” God’s Kingdom was gifted to us through our baptism. Parents make that promise for their children. The parents, godparents, family, and teachers help nurture this baptismal seed in their children until the day the child recognizes and embraces his baptismal identity. His Kingdom grows unseen within us nurtured by our prayer life, our little acts done with great love, and our sacrifice. We are saints in the making, “now but not yet,” chiseled as like a marble by difficulties and trials. St. James reminded us, “Consider it all joy when you encounter various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.” (James 1:2-3) As children of God, we live on this earth as though we don’t belong to this earth. Our happiness lies in the way of living contrary to the world. What we can do now is to carry out our duties and responsibilities faithfully and with great love at this moment and this place. God is always preparing us for something we have not imagined before. Great saints like St. Paul, St. Peter, St. George, Mother Teresa, Padre Pio, and Carlo Acutis did not know that God would use them to accomplish amazing feats for the Kingdom of God. Let us all strive to say “yes” daily to God who desires to use us for something beautiful for God.
