Aints and Saints
Today is All Saints Day. I thank Fr. Rick, who has given me the great honor of preaching on this most important feast.
All Saints Day celebrates a very important aspect of our Catholic faith. Indeed, if the Catholic faith was not able in every age to raise up saints from among its ranks, it would have no purpose. All the Church’s buildings, possessions, fancy vestments and beautiful art would be useless if the Body of Christ was not built up by the example of the saints. They are the most convincing sign that the Church is doing what Jesus asked of it, spreading His faith effectively to the four corners of the world.
Therefore, it is these men and women who, after Jesus and Mary, are the Church’s greatest treasure. They have answered God’s call to holiness and emulation of the life of Christ, the life so beautifully described in the Beatitudes proclaimed by Jesus in today’s Gospel. As described in our first two readings this morning, they reign now in heaven, and see God face to face.
The example of the saints reminds us that we too are called to holiness just as the saints were and are. All Saints Day also reminds us of the great Catholic belief in the communion of saints. The theological concept of the communion of saints is based on the belief that the grace that Jesus offers to all of us is held in common. All of us draw on that grace to be able to be united with Him in this life and forever in the next. We can all become saints by drawing on a kind of bank of grace that is the economy of salvation, the communion of saints.
The path to sainthood is one that we share. We are all on the same road to sainthood, financed if you will by the blood and glory of Christ. When one of us sins, the bank of grace that is the communion of saints loses some of its assets. When one of us does something to build up the Body of Christ through loving action, the entire communion of saints gains in assets. When we seek forgiveness of our sins, the actions of all the saints both dead and living provides the spiritual capital if you will, to pay the bills of sinners.
For all these reasons All Saints Day can be thought of, after Easter and Christmas, as the most important feast in the liturgical year. Additionally, one is struck in our society by the popular fascination with the concept of saints. At one level, this is religious stirring in the hearts of all, churched or unchurched.
But even our often anti-religious, very secular culture refers to saints. Many cities are named after saints, even though many unsaintly things happen there. How often do we refer to someone as having “the patience of a saint.”? People we love and respect are called “saintly” people.” There is annual dinner of Washington politicos called Saints and Sinners. More saints than sinners I expect.
And yes, there is even a professional football team named the New Orleans Saints. Now the New Orleans Saints throughout their more than 40 year history have not been a very good football team. They have never won the Super Bowl or even gotten to the Super Bowl. They have a very good team this year. But some years they have been just plain awful. Fans of the Saints have sometimes rather cruelly referred to them as the Aints instead of the Saints, with the fans wearing brown bags over their head in protest of how bad the team was.
But maybe Saints football fans have stumbled on to a new religious concept. For if we think about our relationship with Jesus, we too can either be aints or saints. Let me give you some examples:
Aints worry about how many square feet they have in their home. Saints are more concerned how many people they welcome into their home.
Aints worry about how many fancy clothes they have. Saints are more concerned with clothing the needy.
Aints build up themselves and help themselves first. Saints build up and help others first.
Aints are concerned about their job title. Saints are concerned with doing a good job.
Aints words do not match their deeds. Saints do.
Aints worry first about their own rights. Saints worry first about the rights of others.
Aints fight to be popular. Saints fight for what is right.
Apropos of aints and saints, the patron saint of our parish, St. Hubert of Liege was a perfect example of an aint who became a saint. He was born in 656 in Maastricht, in what is now modern-day Holland. He was born into a royal family and in his younger years he was not very religious. He lived the life of a wealthy, devil-may-care young nobleman, and frequently did not attend church.
Hubert was a very avid hunter. Church tradition teaches that on a Good Friday in his young adulthood, Hubert went off to hunt deer in the Ardennes Forest. Church law permitted no hunting on that day. As he had a stag in his sight, he received a vision of a crucifix between the stag’s antlers. This event is depicted in a mural just above the entrance to our church. A voice warned him “Hubert, unless you turn to the Lord, and lead a holy life, you shall quickly go down to hell.”
This conversion experience changed Hubert’s life. Shortly after his wife died, Hubert renounced all his worldly positions, titles, and wealth and studied for the priesthood. He eventually was ordained, and rose to the position of Archbishop of Liege, Belgium. He had great preaching and evangelical skills. The poor knew him for his generosity. His stewardship was responsible for converting hundreds of pagans in the Ardennes region (a forest region covering parts of modern-day Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Germany) to Christianity. St. Hubert died in 727 and was canonized about a hundred years later. St. Hubert is the patron saint of hunters, hunting dogs, forest workers, hunters, those struck by rabies, the city of Liege, Belgium and the Ardennes Forest. Many animal rescue shelters are named for him.
St. Hubert’s feast day is November 3. Because St. Hubert is not included on the Roman calendar of saints that is universally celebrated throughout the Church, he is honored on All Saints Day. For those who may be interested and wish to have a more festive celebration, we have also placed in the kiosk copies of a recipe for Venison St. Hubert. Other red meat can also be used if you are not “game” for the venison version of the recipe.
Brothers and sisters, there is only one letter that separates aints from saints. It is the letter s. S stands for Savior. Jesus the Savior gives us the graces to become saints. The communion of saints shares the graces, making it possible for aints to become saints. And that, brothers and sisters, aint bad at all.