All Saints Day

Fr Dominic’s Homily

Today we commemorate all the saints in heaven. Hopefully that includes all our relatives and friends who have gone before us.

It is said that: "The only real sadness, the only real failure and the only great tragedy in life, is not to become a saint."

And it’s true. Think of all the various issues and sufferings that we encounter throughout life:

Obviously these are all important concerns. But they are actually not the biggest sufferings in the great scheme of things. Even if they often seem it.

The greatest suffering that you can ever encounter in life is not to become the person that God wants us to be. Not to follow the will of God. This is what it means to be holy. Indecently that’s what it means when Jesus says “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect”. It’s to become the fullness of who we are.

We think that holy people are only those in monasteries and convents, walking quietly in cloistered gardens, reading their prayer books.

But this is not the way God sees it. Everyone is called to be holy every day. Holiness isn't something that is distant and far removed from us. It’s always within our reach.

Holiness is related to the word wholesomeness. It means living lives of integrity and truth. It means forgiving others when they injure us; it means not holding grudges, it means really moving forwards in life and not allowing yourself to become stuck in a rut of your own making.

Holiness means that you are honest and see situations with an open heart. It means really listening to what someone is trying to say.

And holiness means that you are open to God. It means that you can listen to what God wants to say to your heart.

True holiness, therefore, means striving little by little towards becoming that person that God had in mind when he first decided to bring us into the world.

That’s why we have the beatitudes today. And what are they for? They mean blessed and are a formula from the person of Jesus himself that will allow us to be fulfilled, holy and joyful.

They are in fact an attitude of being and if you like Jesus really wants us to be these attitudes.

The world tells us that we will only be happy if we have a lovely family, a successful career and are loved by everyone. This simply isn’t true.

There are so many people who achieve all this who still fall into deep sadness and depression.

What Jesus is saying is that we will achieve a true peace if:

• If worldly pleasure is not at the centre of our lives.

• If we are not obsessed with popularity.

• If we are merciful to everyone around us even our enemies.

• If we have a heart of integrity that is not divided in its ways.

• If we seek peace for all those around us.

If we can gradually achieve these attitudes and dispositions in our lives then we will be living the lives that God wants us to and experience a peace that no suffering can ever touch.

This is the true essence of being holy and leads us on the daily path to heaven so that we can join all those saints who have gone before us and wait to greet us.