For the past five years, our Office of Multicultural Ministry has gathered Catholics from as many different cultures represented in the Archdiocese for a celebration in the cathedral. While the attendance at such celebrations is still slow to come back since COVID, the joy and beauty were on full display at St. James Cathedral today.
My prayer continues to be that all of our people will embrace the call to holiness as we grow closer to Christ and embrace his mission. You can find the homily for today’s Mass below.
God bless you!
All Our Saints Celebration
St. James Cathedral, November 5, 2022
During the month of November, we have one of our great celebrations to honor the saints. Today, as a part of that celebration, we want to recognize that there are many saints, beyond those formally recognized as such. In addition, we also acknowledge the call to holiness which is at the heart of a truly Christian life.
In today’s Gospel, St. Luke draws our attention to another teaching of Jesus, namely that we cannot serve two masters; God and mammon. (Luke 16:13) But what does this mean?
Mammon was a Hebrew or Aramaic word used to describe ‘that in which one trusts’. Here we can easily see why any and everything that is mammon is in conflict with God, in Whom we are to grow in complete trust.
This is a lesson all the saints learned, and one every saint in the making strives to achieve.
Luke today is speaking primarily of wealth as one such ‘mammon’ and the problem we are faced with when we put our trust in wealth. We all know the tendency of wealth to lead one to dishonesty. (footnote – The New American Bible) From mammon, Jesus goes on to speak about those persons who are trustworthy. Namely, if one is worthy of trust in small matters, all the more in great ones. This is our goal in this life, to be trustworthy in the eyes of Jesus in the worldly affairs entrusted to us, so as to be worthy of the true wealth of everlasting life.
Jesus lived his life in complete trust in God the Father. The saints lived their lives in complete trust in Jesus, Who leads us to the Father and eternal life. As the Book of Revelation relates: “Love for life did not deter them from death.” (Rev 12:11)
Living for Christ, trusting in God the Father, living for what is ‘true wealth’, eternal life, requires dying to self each day.
The life of holiness requires wisdom; to recognize what truly matters, what matters in the end, is to be lived today!
Today’s Psalm (112) puts it well: “Blessed is the one who fears the Lord.”
It is not enough to recognize what is mammon, though we must humbly recognize our weaknesses.
What is most important is to fall in love with Jesus Christ! It is ultimately our love for Christ that motivates our willingness to die to self. Our love compels us to surrender any and all things that we might obtain the fulness of life in Christ.
St. Paul sums up this sentiment in today’s Letter to the Philippians when he says:
“My God will fully supply whatever you need, in accord with his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” (4:19)
May we grow in humility, wisdom, and love in this life that we may obtain the longing of our hearts as did all the saints. Let us grow in holiness that we may know the fulness of peace and joy in eternity with the Risen Lord.
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