THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH Her Doctrine and Morals The Feast of All Saints 1 November 2013

The Sunday Sermon

Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Dear Friends,

Today we honor all the saints together, because we are unable to honor them all appropriately throughout the year due to the sheer number of them and because of our own frailty. As well as honoring them we are also called upon to imitate and follow them. In the Eight Beatitudes Our Lord reveals to us the manner and means that we may use to accomplish this.

The manner in which God has given us this law is very different from the manner in which He gave us the Ten Commandments through Moses. With Moses we see God writing upon stone tablets with frightening sights and sounds. With this New Law we see Jesus writing upon the hearts and souls of men with kindness and gentleness. The frightening aspects of God have passed away for those who Love Him.

The blessings that Jesus promises us are all conditional. There is something to be done on our part before we may attain the promised blessedness. Many humanists and modernists today tell us that these Beatitudes only apply to our relationship with our fellow men. In this they present a dangerous falsehood. The first and greatest commandment is the love of God, the second is the love of ourselves and our fellow men.

When our Lord calls the peacemakers blessed, He speaks primarily of those who make peace with God. There is truly no real peace with our fellow men unless we are first at peace with God. The sinner must first repent, amend his life, and do penance before he can establish peace with himself and God. Once this is accomplished (and only after this is accomplished), is he then able to establish peace with his fellow men. What we say of the peace between individual men must also follow for the peace of nations. Nations are made up of families, which are made up of individual men. As each one of us are, so are our families, and as our families are, so is our nation. It is therefore tragically sad that nations speak so much of peace and exert so much time and energy in pursuit of this ever elusive goal of peace. It seems the more that we hear them talk of peace so much less of peace is present.

There is no real peace in this world because the world is at odds with God. The saints found peace in this world because their hearts were constantly lifted up to God. Our nations will never find peace among themselves unless they first establish peace within themselves. And the peace within themselves cannot be established until her members are at peace with God.

There is a semblance of worldly peace because the world recognizes superior force. The maxim of the world is"might makes right." The nation with the greatest power and force can impose its will upon others and does so. Because these other nations agree and follow the rules imposed upon them through coercion and force, we are told that we have “peace.” There could be nothing further from the truth. Those who are kept down are not at peace and are impatiently awaiting the day when the tables will turn and they will rise up above their present day oppressors.

As there can be no peace with our fellow men unless we are first at peace with God, it stands to reason that we will never find peace with pagan or anti-Christian nations. Likewise as our nation rejects God through secularism and materialism, we are not at peace with God and therefore, from our own starting point, we can never find peace with other nations.

Everyone must suffer much in this world, but it is not the suffering that will bless us. The blessing comes from suffering for God (Justice). The one who suffers patiently for the love of God and of Justice will be blessed, but the man who causes the suffering and who is undermining God's plan will suffer even more so in eternity.

As we honor all the Saints in Heaven, and are soon to remember all the Souls in Purgatory, let us think of ourselves also. We have been given the beatitudes to establish a correct relationship with ourselves and God. After this we can work to establish blessedness in our relationships with one another. We will never completely remove the evils of this world but we can mitigate them within our own lives. Evil can be made into spiritual medicines and cures for our souls if we receive them well. "All things work for the good of those who love God." And we can eagerly look forward to the day when all evil will be removed from the earth and Christ will return and all will be made good.