Yesterday afternoon, I attended the Carondelet Catholic School Mass for the Feast of All the Saints at Church of Christ the King. Although Fr. Dale Korogi aimed his homily at the students, his message was a meaningful one for all of us.
He started by asking why the students were Catholic. He suggested that a common answer to the question is, my parents are Catholic and raised me that way. He is Catholic, he said, because his parents, and his grandparents, and great-grandparents, and the parents of his great-grandparents, etc. were all Catholic. He didn’t mean simply Catholic in name, but people whose Catholic faith inspired the live they lived.
One does not become or remain Catholic or Christian, he suggested, because of an idea, but because of those human beings who came before us who show us what it means to live lives of generosity, love, and faith.
All Saints Day offers an opportunity to celebrate all of those people.
But the idea of the celebration is not that we sit back and simply admire their qualities. Instead, the saints are meant to inspire us. The hope, as Fr. Dale suggested, is that others may look at us and see and example of a life well lived, a life worth emulating.
Creo en Dios! 