Seek the Face of God

Homily for the Solemnity of All Saints
1 November 2014

          My brothers and sisters, we ought to be jealous!

        Today, we celebrate all the women and men, known and unknown, who stand before the Face of God in fullness of His glory.

        We ought to be jealous, because, ultimately, we want to be like them. We want to be in the fullness of God’s glory.

        That is why the refrain of our Responsorial Psalm is so apt for today: We are the people who long to see the Face of God. Yet, we also recognize that those saints who we celebrate this day had that same longing, that same desire. And now their longing, that desire, is fulfilled.

        We pray that one day we may join them in the fullness of Divine love and ecstasy.

        But how are we to do that?

        Our answer, as always, is Jesus: His words, His example.

        Our Gospel today gives us the instructions on how to seek the Face of God: Be blessed!

        We must understand that throughout our lives there will be moments when we are poor in spirit; when we will mourn; when we will be meek; when we will hunger and thirst for righteousness; when we will be merciful; when we will be clean of heart; when we will be peacemakers; when we will be persecuted for the sake of righteousness; and, yes, even times when we will be insulted and persecuted and have every kind of evil uttered against us falsely because of Christ. If and when we recognize these moments throughout our lives, we should rejoice and consider ourselves to be blessed, for we are to recognize the presence of Christ in that moment. Doing so, we seek and see the Face of God.

        It is in these moments, these blessed times of our lives, that we achieve a similar glory to the saints – for they, too, have sought the Face of God, and now praise Him in the fullness of His glory. We live out in our lives in the here and now a foreshadowing of the glory to come. We see glimpses of the Face of God in others, but await the glorious day when we truly behold our God face-to-Face.

        Yet, as seek the Face of God in this life, praying to behold It fully in the next, we also recognize the blessings, the rewards bestowed upon us, as we reflected upon in our Responsorial Psalm. Though the Church Triumphant celebrates these blessings, these rewards in their fullness in Heaven, we, once again, have the foreshadowing here on Earth. For, like the saints, we celebrate the glimpses of the Kingdom of Heaven given to us here on Earth; we are comforted; we inherit the land and its fruitfulness, becoming true stewards of all that God has given to us; we are satisfied when true justice is brought about; we are shown mercy; we see God in the moments of innocence and joy; we are called children of God; and we trust in the promise that our reward will be great in heaven if we remain faithful to the covenant and commands of our God.

        We seek the Face of God because, as sinful as it sounds, we are jealous of the saints whom we celebrate today. We are jealous because we want what they have: Eternal bliss and ecstasy with our God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And, yes, we should be jealous! But if we’re truly jealous, if we truly want what they have, then we have to work for it – we have to actively seek the Face of God. We have to not just put the Beatitudes into practice, we must incarnate the Beatitudes, becoming blessed, ourselves.

        As we become more of that lived beatitude in our lives, the more people will become jealous of us, a jealousy that hopefully leads to Christ, to His Body, and, ultimately, to a life lived with the saints.

        The joy that the saints now live in and experience is given to us in the foreshadowed glory celebrated here in the Mass. As we offer and receive the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ to the Father through the Holy Spirit, we join with our brothers and sisters in glory, praying that they will pray for us, praying that one day we will be able to join with them in the fullness of glory.

        My brothers and sisters, be jealous of what the saints have, and pray that (God willing) one day, we will have used that jealousy to pursue holiness, so that each one of us here will share in the fullness of the glory of God in Heaven. Be jealous, so as to seek the Face of God in this life so that we may behold It in Its fullness in the next.

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Enjoy the journey . . .