Homily for 21 Nov 2015

21 Nov 2015

Throughout this month, we’ve tried to keep the Communion of Saints in mind.  We’ve tried to remember the souls of all the faithful departed.  Maybe we’ve made more visits to the cemetery than usual.  And those aren’t just some curious things we Catholics do every November.  Really, we do these things as a reminder of the hope we have in the Resurrection. 

And it’s the same time of reminder Jesus gives us today.  He refers to “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,” and how God “is not God of the dead, but of the living.”  That’s how Jesus talks about Resurrection and eternal life—by referring to the ancestors.  When the Gospel of Luke was written, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were long dead.  Just like these saints whose images hang in church—each of them has been long dead.

St Margaret Mary died in 1690; St Kateri Tekakwitha in 1680.  St Francis of Assisi died in 1226; St Nicholas in 343.  They’re all long dead.  And I think of my own ancestors: Gottfried Weidemann died in 1903; Michael Foth in 1831.  Matthias Engels died in 1686; John DeBolron in 1558.  They’re all long dead, too.  But we bring them all to mind—just like Jesus does—because in the Communion of the Saints and all the faithful departed, we see ahead to our future.

As God lives forever, so does everybody who can say from their heart: “God is my God, and I belong to him.”  Abraham said it.  Isaac said it.  Jacob said it.  St Margaret Mary said it.  So, too, did St Francis and St Nicholas and all the Saints.  Each of them could say: “God is my God, and I belong to him.”  And the faithful departed could say it, too—after all, they are the faithful departed.  They, too, could say: “God is my God, and I belong to him.”

And anyone who can say that truthfully has already become the possession of God; they’ve already begun to be drawn into God, who is eternal life.  We remember those who are long dead because we hope to be where they are: living a life that is beyond our imaginings, but which is far more good, true, and beautiful than our present life.

The Communion of the Saints is our one proof (if there is one) of the Resurrection from the dead, and life eternal.  And so, let’s remember Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; all the Saints and the faithful departed.  As God lives forever, so do they who were true to him in this life.  May the “God of our ancestors” be our God as well—really and truly.  And, someday, our descendants will remember us (after we’re long-dead) and hope to be where we are—living on in God, living life to the fullest, forever.