St. Didacus (1400-1463)

Didacus is living proof that God "chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong" (1 Corinthians 1:27). As a young man in Spain, Didacus joined the Secular Franciscan Order and lived for some time as a hermit. After Didacus became a Franciscan brother, he developed a reputation for great insight into God’s ways. His penances were heroic. He was so generous with the poor that the friars sometimes grew uneasy about his charity. Didacus volunteered for the missions in the Canary Islands and laboured there energetically and profitably. He was also the superior of a friary there. In 1450 he was sent to Rome to attend the canonization of St. Bernardine of Siena. When many friars gathered for that celebration fell sick, Didacus stayed in Rome for three months to nurse them. After he returned to Spain, he pursued a life of contemplation full-time. He showed the friars the wisdom of God’s ways. As he was dying, Didacus looked at a crucifix and said: "O faithful wood, O precious nails! You have borne an exceedingly sweet burden, for you have been judged worthy to bear the Lord and King of heaven" (Marion A. Habig, O.F.M., The Franciscan Book of Saints, p. 834). San Diego, California, is named for this Franciscan, who was canonized in 1588.

"He was born in Spain with no outstanding reputation for learning, but like our first teachers and leaders unlettered as men count wisdom, an unschooled person, a humble lay brother in religious life. [God chose Didacus] to show in him the abundant riches of his grace to lead many on the way of salvation by the holiness of his life and by his example and to prove over and over to a weary old world almost decrepit with age that God's folly is wiser than men, and his weakness is more powerful than men" (Bull of Canonization).


The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke (16.9-15)

Jesus said, I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own? No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight.


Money
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

There is a vast industry designed to ensure the comfortable retirement of the older population. There is the pension, but people are nevertheless urged to prepare well for this final stage of life, by contributing well to their superannuation, by looking after their health, by getting regular exercise, and in general by saving up their finances for it. People are even urged to take out an insurance for their own burial. A lot of time has to be put into considering whether it is financially wise to buy into a retirement home, or to have a more independent and private arrangement. Financial planning for the sunset of life is necessary in modern society. Of course, all through life there has to be financial planning. The fact is that so much of individual, social, national and international life is take up in the pursuit of money and economic prosperity. Now, it could be argued that, notwithstanding the terrible poverty of considerable portions of the globe, there never has been a time of such material prosperity for so many. The obvious question is, how ought all this be used, especially when so many have little or nothing - and certainly no way to prepare for the future? In this respect, our Lord puts a special twist on the question of the use of our material means to prepare for the future. He asks, what about the future beyond this life? How are you using your financial means to prepare for that? That is surely a pivotal question because this life is brief, and any years of retirement will also be very brief. But the next life will be eternal, and this eternity will depend on the use we make of the material means that have come our way. This is surely a matter of ordinary common sense, but so many do not consider this because they have little faith in the word of Christ. As I say, our Lord puts a twist on this. Gain for yourselves friends with the money you have, he says, so that you will be welcomed into your eternal homeland (Luke 16: 9-15). What does he mean? He means that we ought use our money to serve the needs of others (and so to “make yourselves friends”) in such a way that God will be pleased with us.

The best way to prepare for our real future - which is in heaven - is to love our neighbour as Christ has loved us. As St Paul writes in one of his Letters, though he was rich, Christ became poor in order that we might be rich. Our true “retirement” - let us say - is in heaven, which in any case is in just a little while. All our life we ought be preparing for that, and our utmost concern for our children ought be that they, too, reach that final goal. As our Lord says elsewhere in the Gospel, what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? In one of his parables he tells the story of the successful farmer who has a string of bumper crops, so much so that he simply has nowhere to store all the grain. So he builds much larger barns, and places his abundant produce in them, and settles back with a great sense of security. He is prepared for the years to come. But all the while God has - as we might say - been shaking his head. You fool! You have this day alone left to you, and what use will all this be to you thereafter? The implication is that he should have been using his wealth to provide security for himself in the hereafter. How could he have done this? His wealth would have been of eternal use to him if he had helped the poor and, in general, had supported the advancement of God’s reign in the hearts of men. Our Lord says, “use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.” The money you have is actually in itself little in the sight of God. However much it is, absolutely speaking it is little when compared with the real wealth he wants to give you. Well now, if you cannot be trusted with what is in reality a pittance, how can you expect the real wealth that God wants to give you? That wealth is the divine life of union with Jesus both here and hereafter. Our Lord is drawing parallels between the affairs of this life and those of the next. Very ominously, he warns that we cannot be the slave of money and material goods, and at the same time slaves of God. We must choose.

So then, let us resolve to use the money and material wealth that come our way - and there is nothing wrong with making plenty of money - in a fashion that pleases God. What is wrong is, not making money and even plenty of it, but using it in a way that displeases God. If we are blessed with talent and opportunity for the making of plenty of money, we must remember that it is God who has placed this in our hands. He expects it to be used truly wisely - which is to say, in the light of his will, of his judgment, and of the eternity which will follow his judgment. That is to say, we ought use our material goods to fulfill God’s will, especially in the service of neighbour. In this way we shall be making friends, and will be received into our true homeland.

St. Nicholas Tavelic and Companions (d. 1391)

Nicholas and his three companions are among the 158 Franciscans who have been martyred in the Holy Land since the friars became custodians of the shrines in 1335. Nicholas was born in 1340 to a wealthy and noble family in Croatia. He joined the Franciscans and was sent with Deodat of Rodez to preach in Bosnia. In 1384 they volunteered for the Holy Land missions and were sent there. They looked after the holy places, cared for the Christian pilgrims and studied Arabic. In 1391 Nicholas, Deodat, Peter of Narbonne and Stephen of Cuneo decided to take a direct approach to converting the Muslims. On November 11, 1391, they went to the huge Mosque of Omar in Jerusalem and asked to see the Qadi (Muslim official). Reading from a prepared statement, they said that all people must accept the gospel of Jesus. When they were ordered to retract their statement, they refused. After beatings and imprisonment, they were beheaded before a large crowd. Nicholas and his companions were canonized in 1970. They are the only Franciscans martyred in the Holy Land to be canonized.

In the Rule of 1221, Francis wrote that the friars going to the Saracens (Muslims) "can conduct themselves among them spiritually in two ways. One way is to avoid quarrels or disputes and 'be subject to every human creature for God's sake' (1 Peter 2:13), so bearing witness to the fact that they are Christians. Another way is to proclaim the word of God openly, when they see that is God's will, calling on their hearers to believe in God almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Creator of all, and in the Son, the Redeemer and Saviour, that they may be baptized and become true and spiritual Christians" (Ch. 16).


The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke (16.1-8)

Jesus told his disciples: There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and asked him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.' The manager said to himself, 'What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg—I know what I'll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.' So he called in each one of his master's debtors. He asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' 'Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,' he replied. The manager told him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.' Then he asked the second, 'And how much do you owe?' 'A thousand bushels of wheat,' he replied. He told him, 'Take your bill and make it eight hundred.' The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.


Being shrewd
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

Karl Marx was obviously inspired by the thought of justice and prosperity being brought to the oppressed masses. The analysis by Engels of the condition of the working classes horrified him. Religion, he thought, was a bad dream, a distraction from the real business of life which was to attain material prosperity. Religion was an opiate, dulling the pain of the oppressed with the thought of a higher happiness. As it turned out, as an economic strategy - setting aside deeper considerations - communism proved to be profoundly misguided. In its various oppressions, it ignored the right to personal freedom involving individual initiative and recompense (profit) for one’s own labour. But there is this to be said, that a religious person could take a cue from Marxism in its setting of clear goals and resolutely using the means to attain them. The economic opponent of Marxism, classic capitalism, was equally intent on material prosperity and, for its part, it regarded religion not as an opiate but as irrelevant. Typically it sought its goals, not as if God was an enemy, but as if God did not exist. In purely economic terms capitalism was much more successful than Marxism but at enormous cost to those without capital. It was a different form of oppression. But once again the religious person could take a cue from capitalism in its setting of goals and in its resolutely applying the means to attain them. The radical mistake of both Marxism and capitalism lay in its blindness to the transcendent. God was not at the heart of the endeavour, which was his proper place, for he is at the heart of the universe and of every slither of it. All things are sustained by the finger of God and if his law is opposed or disregarded, then a vast unravelling is set in place. This is the obvious lesson of the Fall of Adam and Eve, and that Fall is iconic of the fundamental issues in true prosperity. If man is to flourish, God must be listened to and obeyed. That having been said, the man of religion - which should be every man - must beware. Yes, he has the light to see that man’s true calling is to God. But is he working at it, shrewdly applying the means to attain his goals?

If a man sets out to be rich, he simply must set goals and shrewdly identify the means to attain them. If a company is to flourish, its board must have a very good strategy especially in times of uncertainty. Marxism, for instance, was not a very good strategy, even for its own purposes. Many people have been very successful and though favourable circumstances played a part, so did strategy and their hard work. This is the point that Everyman, the Everyman of all times and places, ought take to heart. All must have a strategy and all must put in consistent work. I am referring here to the work of attaining our true end. Whatever be a person’s place in the economic race of human society, whatever be his capital, whatever be his labour, whatever be his accomplishments or lack of them, every person on the face of the earth has a tremendous work ahead of him. If he fails in that work he has lost everything. There is a tremendous prize for everyone, a prize within the reach of the highest and the lowest, and everything that a person does in life ought be part of his strategy to reach that goal. It is the true treasure in the field, the pearl of great price. It is not a treasure that is reserved for the few who may have special resources or abilities and perhaps especially favourable circumstances to assist them. Whatever be the circumstances and whatever be the gifts and resources a person is born with, the treasure is meant to be theirs. God has from before the foundation of the world chosen each for the enjoyment of that everlasting treasure. The treasure is union with Christ here and hereafter. But he must work at it. He must shrewdly set the goal which God has set for him, and he must select the means which God has revealed are necessary to attain it. That goal is personal holiness in Christ. It is a daily work, and those successful in the things of this world can be a lesson to those who are aware that man’s true treasure is God. In our Gospel today, our Lord warns all that “the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light” (Luke 16: 1-8).

Jesus Christ is the greatest Teacher of mankind, but compare his teachings with, say, those of so many philosophers. Compare them with the teachings of Aristotle. One thing that distinguishes the sayings of Christ is their amazing simplicity. Even the highest mysteries are expressed in a wondrous simplicity of expression. Our Lord’s teaching in today’s Gospel is profound and simple. You have been given the light. I am your true happiness. Heaven is your homeland. Learn from those who attain their worldly goals to work shrewdly to attain your heavenly goals. Take the means to live in me and resolutely run the race to the finish. Reach your true end. Do not squander the light.

Venerable Solanus Casey (1870-1957)

Barney Casey became one of Detroit’s best-known priests even though he was not allowed to preach formally or to hear confessions! Barney came from a large family in Oak Grove, Wisconsin. At the age of 21, and after he had worked as a logger, a hospital orderly, a streetcar operator and a prison guard, he entered St. Francis Seminary in Milwaukee—where he found the studies difficult. He left there and, in 1896, joined the Capuchins in Detroit, taking the name Solanus. His studies for the priesthood were again arduous. On July 24, 1904, he was ordained, but because his knowledge of theology was judged to be weak, Father Solanus was not given permission to hear confessions or to preach. A Franciscan Capuchin who knew him well said this annoying restriction "brought forth in him a greatness and a holiness that might never have been realized in any other way." During his 14 years as porter and sacristan in Yonkers, New York, the people there recognized him as a fine speaker. "For, though he was forbidden to deliver doctrinal sermons," writes his biographer, James Derum, "he could give inspirational talks, or feverinos, as the Capuchins termed them" (18:96). His spiritual fire deeply impressed his listeners. Father Solanus served at parishes in Manhattan and Harlem before returning to Detroit, where he was porter and sacristan for 20 years at St. Bonaventure Monastery. Every Wednesday afternoon he conducted well-attended services for the sick. A co-worker estimates that on the average day 150 to 200 people came to see Father Solanus in the front office. Most of them came to receive his blessing; 40 to 50 came for consultation. Many people considered him instrumental in cures and other blessings they received. Father Solanus’ sense of God’s providence inspired many of his visitors. "Blessed be God in all his designs" was one of his favourite expressions.

The many friends of Father Solanus helped the Capuchins begin a soup kitchen during the Depression. Capuchins are still feeding the hungry there today. In 1946 in failing health, he was transferred to the Capuchin novitiate in Huntington, Indiana, where he lived until 1956 when he was hospitalized in Detroit. He died on July 31, 1957. An estimated 20,000 people passed by his coffin before his burial in St. Bonaventure Church in Detroit. At the funeral Mass, Father Gerald, the provincial, said: "His was a life of service and love for people like me and you. When he was not himself sick, he nevertheless suffered with and for you that were sick. When he was not physically hungry, he hungere with people like you. He had a divine love for people. He loved people for what he could do for them —and for God, through them." In 1960 a Father Solanus Guild was formed in Detroit to aid Capuchin seminarians. By 1967 the guild had 5,000 members—many of them grateful recipients of his practical advice and his comforting assurance that God would not abandon them in their trials. He was declared Venerable in 1995.

James Patrick Derum, his biographer, writes that eventually Father Solanus was weary from bearing the burdens of the people who visited him. "Long since, he had come to know the Christ-taught truth that pure love of God and one’s fellowmen as children of God are in the final event all that matter. Living this truth ardently and continuously had made him, spiritually, a free man—free from slavery to passions, from self-seeking, from self-indulgence, from self-pity—free to serve wholly both God and man" (The Porter of St. Bonaventure’s, page 199).


The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke (15.1-10)

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering round to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them. Then Jesus told them this parable: "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbours together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.' In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."


God the Shepherd
(Homily by Fr. E.J.Tyler)

It is well-known among anthropologists that in traditional native religions the high god, the principal deity, tends to withdraw from view after the initial work of creation. Thereafter the scene tends to be left to lesser spirits, and it is with these inferior beings that man deals. The high god is a remote and withdrawn deity. The Vedic, Buddhist, and Jain religions share cultural roots in north-eastern India and both the Buddha and Mahavira hailed from this region. It is doubtful that these great Asian religious founders had any clear notion of a supreme deity who actively loves man. Man seeks the Absolute, rather than the Absolute seeking man. Indeed Buddha seems to have been firm that to achieve salvation, one did not have to accept the existence of God. I can think of one modern British scholar of Buddhism who maintains with great erudition that Buddhism rejects the notion of a loving Creator. There is no doubt about the monotheism of Islam, but the Judaeo-Christian observer would hesitate with its image of Allah. Man is called to surrender to Allah with all his heart. Allah is absolute Master and Lord. He is not the Husband of a chosen people referred to by the prophets prior to Jesus Christ, the Husband yearning for fidelity from Israel who is his chosen spouse. Least of all is he the ‘dear, dear Father’ revealed by Jesus Christ, the One we are to address as Abba! The God whom Jesus Christ revealed to man and whose revelation he commissioned his Church to bring to all the nations, is a God who lovingly and anxiously seeks man out. He is consumed with love for man, a love far exceeding man’s ordinary experience. That is to say, the Christian religion has brought to the world a revelation from God and an image of him that is unique in its overwhelming stress on divine love. God is love. That is his most complete definition. For many religions this would reduce God to something less than the One who is utterly transcendent and beyond the world. But no. Such is the surprise of God. God is love in his essence and life - being a communion in love of three divine persons who are each the one only God - and he is love in his involvement with man and the world.

In our Gospel today our Lord, the Son of God made man - Oh, wonder of wonders! - speaks of what the transcendent God is like. God - the high god of the native peoples, the Absolute who is obscurely sought by Hinduism and Buddhism, the One whom every man vaguely seeks and in whom lies his only true happiness - is the joy and fulfilment of man’s heart. This one God, in whose hand is held our vast and mighty universe, gazes on every man and woman with a yearning and compassionate love. He is Father to each of us in a sense we can scarcely imagine, precisely because of the infinite power of his love. The world throbs with love and it throbs with hate. The love that is found in the world - that love which exists between man and wife, between parents and children, between friend and friend, and occasionally even between enemies - all this love is as nothing compared with the love which the Creator of all has for each person he sustains in existence. It is a love which seeks each out, pursuing him silently, discreetly, unrelentingly. It is a love which will never give up and which is determined to prevail. Ultimately, though, it is a love that can be rejected and if it is rejected it will be to the sorrow of the mighty Father who is our Creator. God is love, and our Lord shows this in his parable of our Gospel passage today (Luke 15: 1-10). God is like the shepherd, one of whose sheep has strayed. “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” God will rejoice if we turn back to him, and our turning back to him will be the result of his loving pursuit of us. Moreover, the whole of heaven is filled with this divine love that anxiously pursues wayward and sinful man. Just as God will rejoice, so will all of heaven. This is what the Creator of the world is like. He loves us dearly.

It is one of the features of spiritual maturity to be able to look back on life and see, amid the many bad experiences, the hand of a loving and very particular Providence. God has pursued us with his love amid the cruelty and thoughtlessness of others and amid our own many failings too. He is like the good shepherd going after the stray, or like the woman searching every nook and cranny of her home till she finds the lost coin. As the years pass we must place ourselves more and more deeply in the care of our heavenly Father. Let us do this, determined withal to obey him in all the little and ordinary duties of life. Thus will we reach our true homeland.

St. Charles Borromeo (1538-1584)

The name of St. Charles Borromeo is associated with reform. He lived during the time of the Protestant Reformation, and had a hand in the reform of the whole Church during the final years of the Council of Trent. Although he belonged to Milanese nobility and was related to the powerful Medici family, he desired to devote himself to the Church. When his uncle, Cardinal de Medici, was elected pope in 1559 as Pius IV, he made Charles cardinal-deacon and administrator of the Archdiocese of Milan while he was still a layman and a young student. Because of his intellectual qualities he was entrusted with several important offices connected with the Vatican and later appointed secretary of state with responsibility for the papal states. The untimely death of his elder brother brought Charles to a definite decision to be ordained a priest, despite relatives’ insistence that he marry. Soon after he was ordained a priest at the age of 25, he was consecrated bishop of Milan. Because of his work at the Council of Trent, he was not allowed to take up residence in Milan until the Council was over. Charles had encouraged the pope to renew the Council in 1562 after it had been suspended for 10 years. Working behind the scenes, St. Charles deserves the credit for keeping the Council in session when at several points it was on the verge of breaking up. He took upon himself the task of the entire correspondence during the final phase. Eventually Charles was allowed to devote his time to the Archdiocese of Milan, where the religious and moral picture was far from bright. The reform needed in every phase of Catholic life among both clergy and laity was initiated at a provincial council of all the bishops under him. Specific regulations were drawn up for bishops and other clergy: If the people were to be converted to a better life, the had to be the first to give a good example and renew their apostolic spirit. Charles took the initiative in giving good example. He allotted most of his income to charity, forbade himself all luxury and imposed severe penances upon himself. He sacrificed wealth, high honours, esteem and influence to become poor. During the plague and famine of 1576, he tried to feed 60,000 to 70,000 people daily. To do this he borrowed large sums of money that required years to repay. Whereas the civil authorities fled at the height of the plague, he stayed in the city, where he ministered to the sick and the dying, helping those in want. Work and the heavy burdens of his high office began to affect his health. He died at the age of 46.


The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke (14.25-33)

Large crowds were travelling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters— yes, even his own life— he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14: 25-33)


Discipleship
(Homily by Father E. J. Tyler)

Eudemus of Rhodes was one of Aristotle’s pupils. He edited his famous teacher’s work and made it more easily accessible. Living from 370 BC until about 300 BC, he was a philosopher and historian of science. He collaborated so closely with his master that he was regularly called Aristotle's "companion" rather than his "disciple." Discipleship is part of human history, for there have always been masters with their disciples. During the second decade of the nineteenth century in England, John Henry Newman was changing from Evangelicalism to High Church Anglicanism. But a new stage in his life was reached when Hurrell Froude drew him to John Keble. In a sense Newman then became a disciple of Keble’s, while in time outclassing his one-time master in the power and depth of his thought. Newman himself became a master with many ardent disciples, and the driving force of the Oxford Movement. As I say, it is a feature of the history of mankind that there have been numerous masters with their disciples and we see it also in the history of God’s chosen people. The prophet Isaiah (spanning the late eighth and early seventh century B.C) had disciples. We read in Isaiah 8:16-18 the prophet directing: “Bind up the testimony and seal up the law among my disciples. I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob.” Some scholars propose that the disciples of Isaiah formed an Isaian school. Presumably most of the prophets had their disciples and those disciples had influence on those around them. John the Baptist had many disciples. Our Lord’s first and most important disciples were drawn from some of John’s, and others of John’s disciples were encountered by the infant Church in its missionary work far and wide. Our Lord had very many disciples. Some were Apostles, many followed him to the end, and some fell away. There is, however, at least one feature of what Christ expected of his disciples that absolutely distinguishes him from other masters. What is this feature to which am I referring?

Aristotle had been a disciple of Plato - though he moved away from his master in his thought. But Plato would never have expected unqualified devotion to his own person from his disciples. Nor did Aristotle expect this of his disciples. Nor, of course, did Keble expect this of Newman - such an expectation would have been preposterous. Isaiah would have expected from his disciples a heart open to the word of God and a readiness to follow his - Isaiah’s - guidance. So would have John the Baptist of his disciples. But neither would have expected an ardent devotion to his own person. This was understood to be reserved for God. The prophet merely pointed to God and announced his word. John described himself as being merely a voice crying in the wilderness. The case is altogether different with Jesus Christ. He expected of his disciples a total devotion both to his word and to his person. In this he claimed a status altogether unique, transcending all other masters before and after him. We read that “Large crowds were travelling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters— yes, even his own life— he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14: 25-33). Our Lord puts his point graphically - his disciple must act as if he were “hating” his closest relatives, which is to say placing devotion to himself far ahead of devotion to any other. His interests are to dwarf in importance the interests of all others, were they to be in conflict. If this is not the case, a person cannot be counted as his disciple. Moreover, “anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” This is a remarkable statement, for it alludes to crucifixion. Our Lord did refer to his crucifixion with his close disciples during his public ministry and his allusions were often not understood. In our passage today our Lord alludes to the cross even before the crowds. Anyone who wishes to be his disciple must be prepared to follow him, carrying his cross, even to the point of crucifixion. It is a serious business being a disciple of Christ.

All this is to say that we must enter into the Christian life with a lot of deliberation and be as cognisant as possible of its demands. Our Lord asks for a total love and a full-hearted obedience. He is expecting us to love and serve him as we would God - and for this simple reason that he, our brother and redeemer, is God. Let us deliberate carefully, then. “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him.” Let us resolve to give all it takes. It will mean giving our all. Ah! It is worth it!

St. Martin de Porres (1579-1639)

"Father unknown" is the cold legal phrase sometimes used on baptismal records. "Half-breed" or "war souvenir" is the cruel name inflicted by those of "pure" blood. Like many others, Martin might have grown to be a bitter man, but he did not. It was said that even as a child he gave his heart and his goods to the poor and despised. He was the illegitimate son of a freed woman of Panama, probably black but also possibly of Native American stock, and a Spanish grandee of Lima, Peru. Martin inherited the features and dark complexion of his mother. That irked his father, who finally acknowledged his son after eight years. After the birth of a sister, the father abandoned the family. Martin was reared in poverty, locked into a low level of Lima’s society. When he was 12, his mother apprenticed him to a barber-surgeon. He learned how to cut hair and also how to draw blood (a standard medical treatment then), care for wounds and prepare and administer medicines. After a few years in this medical apostolate, Martin applied to the Dominicans to be a "lay helper," not feeling himself worthy to be a religious brother. After nine years, the example of his prayer and penance, charity and humility led the community to request him to make full religious profession. Many of his nights were spent in prayer and penitential practices; his days were filled with nursing the sick and caring for the poor. It was particularly impressive that he treated all people regardless of their colour, race or status. He was instrumental in founding an orphanage, took care of slaves brought from Africa and managed the daily alms of the priory with practicality as well as generosity. He became the procurator for both priory and city, whether it was a matter of "blankets, shirts, candles, candy, miracles or prayers!" When his priory was in debt, he said, "I am only a poor mulatto. Sell me. I am the property of the order. Sell me." Side by side with his daily work in the kitchen, laundry and infirmary, Martin’s life reflected God’s extraordinary gifts: ecstasies that lifted him into the air, light filling the room where he prayed, bilocation, miraculous knowledge, instantaneous cures and a remarkable rapport with animals. His charity extended to beasts of the field and even to the vermin of the kitchen. He would excuse the raids of mice and rats on the grounds that they were underfed; he kept stray cats and dogs at his sister’s house. He became a formidable fundraiser, obtaining thousands of dollars for dowries for poor girls so that they could marry or enter a convent. Many of his fellow religious took him as their spiritual director, but he continued to call himself a "poor slave." He was a good friend of another Dominican saint of Peru, Rose of Lima (August 23).

In 1962, Pope John XXIII remarked at the canonization of Martin: "He excused the faults of others. He forgave the bitterest injuries, convinced that he deserved much severer punishments on account of his own sins. He tried with all his might to redeem the guilty; lovingly he comforted the sick; he provided food, clothing and medicine for the poor; he helped, as best he could, farm labourers and Negroes, as well as mulattoes, who were looked upon at that time as akin to slaves: thus he deserved to be called by the name the people gave him: 'Martin of Charity.'"


The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke (14.15-24)

When one of those at the table with Jesus heard this, he said to Jesus, "Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God." Jesus replied: "A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.' But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, 'I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.' Another said, 'I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I'm on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.' Still another said, 'I have just got married, so I can't come.' The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.' 'Sir,' the servant said, 'what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.' Then the master told his servant, 'Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full. I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.'"


The Grand Invitation
(Homily by Fr. E.J. Tyler)

The scene of our Gospel passage today is still that of our Lord dining in the home of one of the leading Pharisees. Before his hosts Jesus has calmly flouted the strictures of the Pharisees in respect to healing on the Sabbath. Before the eyes of his silent critics he has summarily healed a man with dropsy, and they are unable to answer his challenge about his action. He then proceeds to comment on their seeking the important places at the table, and on their having invited to the meal only their friends and the rich and well-regarded. When you are invited seek rather the lower places, our Lord comments - perhaps with a smile - and in any case invite the poor and the sick to your feasts. In this way your reward will be great when the just rise again. At the mention of the resurrection of the just, one of the guests sighs before our Lord at the thought of heaven: “ Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” Our Lord takes up the point but turns it to his theme that those who have been invited - and it is a warning to those before him - must not feel cocksure of a place there. The resurrection of the just will indeed be a banquet to which “many guests” have been invited. “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.'” The servants carrying news of the invitation, of course, had been the prophets right up to John. The supreme messenger of the invitation was the one before them, Jesus of Nazareth. But time and again the invitation had been ignored. “They all alike began to make excuses. The first said, 'I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.' Another said, 'I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I'm on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.' Still another said, 'I have just got married, so I can't come.' The servant came back and reported this to his master.” The point is simple, that God had invited his people to a wondrous future, but many had failed to respond.

The warning develops in the parable. Those who had been invited but who had not responded would be passed over. The master of the banquet is determined to fill his house with guests. The banquet will proceed and it will be filled. Some of those, who from the first had been invited, will not be there and the fault will be entirely theirs. The parable, then, tells us of the tremendous responsibility of each person to hear the invitation to come to God and participate in his plan. That plan is centred on the person and teaching of Jesus Christ. A vast prospect hangs in the balance of each invitee’s response. On the one hand there is joy and happiness inside the house, while on the other there is darkness and grief outside. Which is it to be? In any case the mighty plan of God to save the world will proceed. God is resolved to fill his house, even if many refuse the invitation to come. Christ points to the coming Church with its universal mission to all the nations. “Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.' 'Sir,' the servant said, 'what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.' Then the master told his servant, 'Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full.'” (Luke 14: 15-24) Just before he ascended into heaven our Lord said to his disciples, “Go to the whole world and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” The banquet of heaven will be the joy of being with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit for ever. It is the universal call of every man and woman to goodness. All have this destiny, but it depends on each person’s response to the invitation when it comes. Those who hear Christ’s word and his teaching have before them the explicit invitation. Those who do not, will hear this call of God and Christ in other ways - muffled by comparison, perhaps, but nevertheless there. Cardinal Newman once described the conscience as “the aboriginal vicar of Christ.” God means all men to be saved, and Christ is the one and only way to the Father.

Every day passes rapidly, as does every hour, every minute and every second. Life is short. But that is not the end of the story, for eternity is very long. Each man and woman will live forever. In ten million years, the eternity of each of us will still be only beginning. No matter at what point in the future we care to place ourselves, our eternity will only be starting. How terrible the thought of being cast outside because we failed to respond to the invitation during this brief span! So then, now I begin! Yes, this very minute, now I begin! No time is to be wasted.

The Faithful Departed

The Church has encouraged prayer for the dead from the earliest times as an act of Christian charity. "If we had no care for the dead," Augustine noted, "we would not be in the habit of praying for them." In the early Middle Ages monastic communities began to mark an annual day of prayer for the departed members. In the middle of the 11th century, St. Odilo, abbot of Cluny (France), decreed that all Cluniac monasteries offer special prayers and sing the Office for the Dead on November 2, the day after the feast of All Saints. The custom spread from Cluny and was finally adopted throughout the Roman Church. The theological underpinning of the feast is the acknowledgment of human frailty. Since few people achieve perfection in this life but, rather, go to the grave still scarred with traces of sinfulness, some period of purification is necessary before a soul comes face-to-face with God. The Council of Trent affirmed this purgatory state and insisted that the prayers of the living can speed the process of purification.


The Holy Gospel according to Saint John (6.37-40)

Jesus said, "All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."


Sin and the Beyond
(Homily by Fr. E.J. Tyler)

There are a whole range of starting points in human thought upon which different philosophies are built. For instance, one starting point is the perception of a lack of ultimate substance in the things of experience. That is to say, everything changes, comes and goes, and cannot be relied upon. Another starting point is the experience of communion and love. Another is the sense of one’s own self as the one immediate and certain reality. A philosophy arises from basic perceptions of reality that form the ground of a thinker’s entire perspective. In the nineteenth century, John Henry Newman understood the fact of sin as a primary facet of human life and therefore of reality. It was, he thought, a basic starting point of any true philosophy. This is a very interesting observation because it places the natural experience of an offended God at the root of human reflection. This is not the moment to digress into the development of a philosophy. But Newman’s observation reminds us of the basic fact of sin. It is a fact that stares man in the face and around which life revolves in his search for happiness. That having been said, it is also paradoxically the case that the fact of sin is widely missed in human thought. It is rare to find it occupying a pivotal place in philosophy. Ethics - and therefore unethical behaviour - occupies a central place, but not sin. Sin is that wrongdoing which involves offending a holy God, and Newman’s point is that this sense of an offended God is a primary datum of experience. Indeed, we might add, this natural sense of an offended God accompanies sinful man throughout the short span of his life. It opens him to the wondrous news of the Gospel that there is a Redeemer who has come to be his Brother, Friend and Sanctifier. The good news of Christ is that, due to the gift of grace, man’s obviously sinful state can be combated and gradually overcome. He, man, can become holy to his core, and a true image of his all-holy Redeemer. Mary, the utterly sinless mother of Christ, is the living icon of the power of grace to preserve man from sin.

This is the drama and issue of human life: the contest between sin and holiness in the heart of man. There is need for a philosophy which sets this basic issue at the foundation of experience and makes it the ground of thought and of religion. It is the issue that remains at the forefront of life right to the end. At the last, man goes out from this life with the contest resolved one way or the other. His course is set forever, depending on which has prevailed. However, it is also a fact of experience that while in ultimate terms the contest is resolved at his death, clearly for those whose hearts have been won to holiness, the work is not yet over. People die being good, or desiring to be good - but they are not yet completely good. They are in God’s camp and behind the Standard of Christ, but there is much to be done in their hearts before they can be admitted forever into the shining and lovely presence of the all-holy God. They are still soiled and scarred by the ravages of sin and require a deep cleansing, a purification of all the sinful grime so deeply ingrained in the structure of the soul. The good news is that after death the saving grace of Christ continues actively to sanctify the one who has died in Christ but who is not yet entirely holy. Those who die in Christ, those who die on the side of goodness, will receive the mercy of a complete cleansing - deeply painful but joyous - with the knowledge that God is their future. All this means that a complete sanctification is ahead for the one who dies in Christ, but who is not yet entirely holy. With this Purgatory over, eternal joy will be theirs. It is a dogma of the Church that, following death, the righteous are purified of the remnants and results of sin to the extent necessary. Whether this takes the equivalent of a period of time we are not certain. What is certain is that those in Christ here on earth and those already in heaven can intercede for those in Purgatory and hasten the purification they are undergoing. We can and should pray for the faithful departed. We can have Masses celebrated for their speedy entry into the presence of God. Those in Purgatory depend on our prayers, and on All Souls Day the entire Church prays for their rapid entry into eternal bliss.

St Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England and martyr of the Church under King Henry VIII, placed powerful emphasis on works of charity towards the dead. We should pray for them, have masses said for them, offer up our sacrifices and penances for them, looking on them as our needy brothers and sisters. They await our charity. More wrote powerfully of the gratitude they will feel towards us when, due to our prayers, they enter the presence of God forever. There they will be our heavenly intercessors while we make our way through life and, in our turn, come to depend on them for prayers during our own purification in Purgatory. Let us pray each day for the souls in Purgatory.

Solemnity of All Saints

Morning Offering: O Jesus, through the most pure heart of Mary, I offer you all the prayers, works, joys and sufferings of this day for all the intentions of your divine heart, in union with the holy sacrifice of the Mass. I offer them especially for the Holy Father's intentions:

Pope Benedict's general prayer intention for November is: "That all the men and women in the world, especially those who have responsibilities in the field of politics and economics, may never fail in their commitment to safeguard creation".

His mission intention is: "That believers in the different religions, through the testimony of their lives and fraternal dialogue, may clearly demonstrate that the name of God is a bearer of peace".

Prayers this week: Let us all rejoice in the Lord and keep festival in honour of all the saints. Let us join with the angels in joyful praise to the Son of God.

Father, all-powerful and ever-living God, today we rejoice in the holy men and women of every time and place. May their prayers bring us your forgiveness and love. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.



The earliest certain observance of a feast in honour of all the saints is an early fourth-century commemoration of "all the martyrs." In the early seventh century, after successive waves of invaders plundered the catacombs, Pope Boniface IV gathered up some 28 wagonloads of bones and reinterred them beneath the Pantheon, a Roman temple dedicated to all the gods. The pope rededicated the shrine as a Christian church. According to Venerable Bede, the pope intended "that the memory of all the saints might in the future be honoured in the place which had formerly been dedicated to the worship not of gods but of demons" (On the Calculation of Time). But the rededication of the Pantheon, like the earlier commemoration of all the martyrs, occurred in May. Many Eastern Churches still honour all the saints in the spring, either during the Easter season or immediately after Pentecost. How the Western Church came to celebrate this feast in November is a puzzle to historians. The Anglo-Saxon theologian Alcuin observed the feast on November 1 in 800, as did his friend Arno, Bishop of Salzburg. Rome finally adopted that date in the ninth century.

This feast first honoured martyrs. Later, when Christians were free to worship according to their conscience, the Church acknowledged other paths to sanctity. In the early centuries the only criterion was popular acclaim, even when the bishop's approval became the final step in placing a commemoration on the calendar. The first papal canonization occurred in 993; the lengthy process now required to prove extraordinary sanctity took form in the last 500 years. Today's feast honours the obscure as well as the famous — the saints each of us have known.

“After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.... [One of the elders] said to me, ‘These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb’” (Revelation 7:9,14).


The Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew (5.1-12a)

When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to Him, and He began to teach them, saying: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven."


All the saints
(Homily by Fr. E.J.Tyler)

I remember on one occasion I was in a church with many people praying there, and a person came in also to pray. I noticed that he walked up to the front and, by-passing the Tabernacle and all else, went to the statue of a saint that was there in this church. There he prayed to that saint, and did so, I presume, with much faith. I am sure that our Lord, present in His entire humanity and Divinity in the Blessed Sacrament, smiled kindly - as it were. He had been passed by as had the greatest of saints (Mary and Joseph) whose statues were also there and with considerable prominence. The saint whom the person was venerating and to whom he was praying might himself have felt a little heavenly embarrassment for being the object of religious devotion while Christ Himself was ignored. But God would have viewed kindly the limitations of the one praying, and would surely have been gracious in answering that person’s persistent prayer. The point I am making is that while the saints are the best members of Christ’s own family, they themselves point to Christ. The intent of the saint, both while here on earth and now in heaven, is to bring us to him. It is well known that numerous Protestant bodies will not allow for Saints as explained by the Catholic Church in her doctrine and prayer. For his part, while the Catholic regards the Protestant position on saints to be doctrinally mistaken, he readily allows that the Reformers of the time may have been reacting against misguided practices of poorly-instructed Catholics. Undoubtedly at the time some members of the faithful, when venerating and praying to this or that saint, in effect saw little role for Christ. This was an error and it had to be corrected. The saint is one who is fully immersed in Christ, living in union with him and in obedience to the Father, and for whom Christ is the one and only Lord of lords. Christ is the object, the heart and the soul of the whole of the Christian religion. At the same time other divinely-appointed elements of religion are present, and among those elements are the saints.

There is a profound bond existing between all members of the Church due to their common life in Christ. Due to this divine life in Christ springing from their baptism they share in the faith, in the sacraments - especially the Eucharist, in the various charisms of the Holy Spirit, and in numerous other spiritual gifts. At the root of this communion of all those who are in Christ and his Church is the life of love, love for God and love for neighbour. This bond of love deriving from union with Jesus spans both the visible and invisible world. We share our union with Christ with those with us on earth, with those in heaven, and with those being purified in Purgatory. The Church encourages us to pray to the saints our elder brothers and sisters in the Lord, and most especially to the one who transcends all others in her love for Jesus her divine Son. I am referring to Mary the mother of Christ, the sinless virgin assumed body and soul into heaven in glory. We have a profound bond with her who is our mother, and with all those in heaven. We are all members of Christ’s family. Christ said that he regarded those who hear the word of God and keep it as his brother and sister and mother. Today is the feast of all the Saints, meaning by this all those now with Christ in heaven. They have been purified - either in this life or in Purgatory - from their sins and are now in heaven face-to-face with God. They are supremely happy and not a tear can be found there. Their lot, with life’s testing now over, is one of unending bliss. They wish to aid us by their prayers to lead a holy life here on earth and so to join them in the life to come. It is a good thing to pray to those among the Saints to whom we are drawn. The Church strongly recommends it, and venerates the Saints in her liturgy throughout the year. The one among them to whom we ought pray most - as ever, after Christ himself - is Mary, the mother of our Lord who, by his gift, is our heavenly mother too. Of course, we must not obscure the face of Christ, but this is the last thing which the saints themselves would like to see happen.

It is an explicit point of the Christian Creed that there is a great communion among all those in Christ. We believe in the communion of saints. The New Testament - especially the Letters of St Paul - speaks of Christians who live their faith as being “the saints.” The word means “holy ones.” Their holiness comes from their baptism and their living in union with Jesus. While the Church has formally canonized certain men and women for their exceptionally holy lives and has laid it down that these persons are now in heaven, these are not the only ones in heaven. We may trust that heaven already abounds with souls who had been faithful to Christ during life, including many of our deceased relatives and friends. Their purification from sin is over. Let us love those who have gone before us into heaven. Let us pray to them, learn from them, and in Christ, finally join them.