Some pictures of the Saints I know.
left to right: my mom, my Uncle Bob, my grandfather Oscar, my Uncle Ozzie, and my Aunt Ruth (Greta, the little girl is still with us)
It is the feasts of All Saints/All Souls. I do not think of these feasts as separate, in spite of the tedious 20 minute homily I heard last night at Mass explaining the difference between the church militant, the church suffering and the church glorious. It was all a bunch of yah-dah, yah-dah, yah-dah to me.
Who are the saints in our lives? While I believe that Peter, Paul, all the rest of the apostles, Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and others are legitimate saints whose lives we must venerate, there are a lot of saints on the official Church calendar I consider hardly saints. And there are some people who should be on the calendar of saints and are omitted. For years, Archbishop Oscar Romero was declined sainthood because of Pope John Paul II’s right wing politics. Romero was a martyr for the faith, who died for his faith, which should make him an automatic saint. Ironically, John Paul II, who held up his canonization, was made a saint even though he looked the other way and knowingly did not discipline bishops and priests guilty of sexually abusing children. Under his papacy the corruption within the Roman Curia skyrocketed. The canonization process is highly political and flawed.
So who are the saints in our lives? It is those people who have tried throughout their lives to live the commandment Jesus gave us on Holy Thursday night, “love one another has I have loved you.” Think of those whose love for us has shaped our lives. Think of those who gave of themselves to us and to others in love. They used their lives gradually perfecting how to love as Jesus loves. And though their bodies wore out and died, they continue to live and love us. At funerals, I often speak about how death does not sever the bonds of love we have had with those who have died. They are no longer hampered by a body, but love more intensely then when they had a body. All we need do is think their name and they are at our side. If our loved one had been a parent, well, us kids can’t get away with anything any more. Like Santa, they now KNOW when we are naughty and nice.
You will notice that I have two of my pet dogs among the human saints pictured above. Pope Francis has preached that our pets are in heaven. If the definition of a saint is that of one who has loved as Jesus loved, those two great Pyrs loved me and my family more fully than many people. Those two dogs loved us so much that they were ready to guard us and die for us if necessary. When they died, their loss was hugely felt by all of us and we still grieve their loss.
I love how the Latino culture celebrates these two days. They keep the memory of their dead loved ones alive by celebrating their lives, picnicking at their gravesites, building a special altar with the pictures of their loved ones, cooking their favorite foods, having their favorite drinks present, and their favorite pass times. The Latinos I have known, never forget their loved ones because they believe their loved ones are always present. That is why I believe we must honor and celebrate the feast days (the day of their death is the day of their birth into everlasting life) of our deceased loved ones. We need to tell and retell the stories, especially those that were important for us. We need to keep their pictures around us, and remember them when we gather at those important family functions and banquets.
In conclusion, I would like to relate the last two days of my sister, Mary Ruth’s life. On August 8th, 1997, my sister was moved from ICU to hospice. After my sister was settled into hospice (there was no home hospice at that time), she greeted all our dead relatives in the room. She turned to my mother and I and said, “They are playing my song but I am not ready to hear it.” My mom turned to me and said quietly, “It must be the morphine.” I told mom, “Morphine is not a hallucinogen like LSD, mom. She is beginning to see what is really real from that which is temporary (as St Paul writes in the 4th chapter of his second letter to the Corinthians). Mary was correct. She was not ready to hear her song. She still had two days and died early in the morning on August 10th.
When we are born from this life to the next, I hope to see all those pictured above welcoming me home to heaven. Till that time I will keep holy their feast day (the day of their death and birth to heaven). We will light candles in memory of them at our banquet table here on earth, till we can join them around the banquet table of God promised to us by Jesus.
