homilies
on the liturgy of the Sundays and feasts

by leonard a. kennedy

The saints
Feast of All Saints — November 1

Readings: Rev. 7:2-4, 9-14 • 1 John 3:1-2 • Matt. 5:1-12

Title: All Saints, the Communion of Saints
Purpose: to explain (1) what sanctity is; and (2) that sanctity is the goal of our life.

The words “saint” and “sanctity” come from the Latin word “sanctus,” which means “holy.” Sanctity or holiness is difficult to define but its meaning can be seen most easily when we think of God. The angels continually sing before his throne “Holy, holy, holy.” Holiness is, one might say, the chief attribute of God. It comprises his justice, generosity, moral uprightness, and love. Normal persons have a conscience, which makes us admire these qualities and teaches us that we are bound to strive for them.

If it is the chief attribute of God, we must live lives which make us holy because God made every creature to be as much like him as is possible for it; and, unlike all other material beings, we possess intellect and will, which make it possible for us to be just, generous, morally upright, and good. Jesus said: “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

In the natural order God gives us the ability to possess these qualities of holiness on a purely human level. But God raises human beings to a higher order, which we call the supernatural order because it is high above the level of our nature. It gives our nature a share in God’s nature. That is, it enables us to live with the life of God himself. Jesus said: “I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly. If anyone loves me my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home in him.” And St. Paul asks: “Do you not know that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you?”

Now, what is the life of God? In his divine nature God does not have a body. His life, then, is not biological. His life is the life, the activity, of the mind. It consists of knowledge and love. What is it that God knows? He knows himself and everything else. What does he love? We might think it selfish if we said that he loves himself, but our Catholic faith tells us that God is three Persons, not one; and that the Persons of the Trinity love one another. God’s life is primarily the activity by which the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit know and love one another. God’s life is a social life. A human being lives this life by entering that society, by knowing the Trinity as they know one another, by loving them as they love one another. This knowledge we call faith, and this love we call charity. To possess faith and charity is to live with God’s life. Of course on earth we don’t experience it, except in a very limited way, but in heaven we shall experience it fully.

What is especially important to realize is that this life is essentially the same in either case. On earth there is the seed, in heaven there is the flower; but the life is the same life. If we don’t live with divine life in this life we will not possess it in the next.

This is a central teaching of our faith. We received this divine life at baptism. It is God’s will that we live it ever afterwards. If we are just, generous, morally upright, and good, we will do so. If, however, we fail through mortal sin to live with divine life, we must regain it as soon as possible by repentance and the Sacrament of Penance.

We may now say that to be holy, to be a saint, is to live with God’s life. We call this being in the state of grace, the word “grace” coming from the Latin word “gratia,” which means “favor.” God has conferred on us the greatest possible favor.

The prayers of today’s Mass show us that we are commemorating the heavenly glory of all human beings in heaven; we commemorate the angels on other feast days. The word “saint” applies to all human beings and angels in heaven, but it also applies to anyone living with divine life in Purgatory or on earth. We refer to the holy souls in Purgatory, and St. Paul called his converts saints. And so the Church Militant, the Church Suffering, and the Church Triumphant, are a communion of saints because they possess divine life. Since there is only one divine life, possessing it makes us one with God and with one another.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says clearly that “all Christians in any state or walk of life . . . are called to holiness.” It tells us that the Holy Spirit “is truly the dwelling of the saints, and the saints are for the Spirit a place where he dwells as in his own home, since they offer themselves as a dwelling place for God and are called his temple.” The Church is realistic, of course, and warns us that “the way of perfection passes by way of the Cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle.” To keep living with divine life we must pray, offer the Sacrifice of the Mass, keep the Commandments, do penance, and help others.

Suggested reading: Catechism of the Catholic Church, 947-48, 954, 957, 2013, 2015, 2684.

Belief is not enough
31st Sunday of the Year — November 4

“C” Readings: Wis. 11:23 — 12:2 • 2 Thess. 1:11 — 2:2 • Luke 19:1-10

Title: I Believe in God
Purpose: (1) Beginning with reasons for believing in God’s existence, (2) show the logical reasons for being a convinced, practicing Catholic.


The reason that you and I are practicing Catholics is, first of all, that we believe in the existence of God. Now, there are three kinds of reasons for believing that God exists. And, in order to simplify the matter for Catholics somewhat, we can say that, in practice, the question is: does the God of Catholicism exist or is there no God at all?

The first kind of reason for accepting God’s existence is what we might call a common-sense reason. For example, we know that nothing happens without a cause. And, since the universe exists, either it is uncaused or it was produced by another being or a chain of other beings. Therefore there has always been something in existence. So the question is: was the universe produced by God, or has there always been just earlier states of the physical universe?

In the latter case, how do we explain sensation, and intelligence, and morality? Of all physical things, only animal life has sensation, and only human beings have intelligence and morality. Animal life is only a few billion years old, and human life only a few hundred thousand years. So, from the point of view of an eternal universe, sensation and intelligence and morality appeared almost at once after an eternal absence. And could any form of a non-conscious, non-intelligent, non-moral being produce sensation or intelligence or morality? From eternity the physical universe would have lacked all of these qualities, and these are the highest qualities in existence. If something is an effect, it must come from a cause at least as great as itself. So sensation and intelligence and morality must have come from a conscious, intelligent, and moral being. And we know from experience that the human race itself, though it has intelligence and a moral nature, is not the author of intelligence and morality, since intelligence and morality were produced along with the first human beings. So there must have been an extremely intelligent and powerful and morally good author of the human race.

A similar argument follows from a consideration of the marvelous structure of the physical universe, its intricacy, its beauty, its order, its mystery. “When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur, and hear the brook, and feel the gentle breeze, then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee. How great thou art!” The human body alone presents hundreds of amazing aspects of purposiveness, enough to convince us that a highly intelligent, powerful being produced it.

A second kind of argument for the existence of God is more difficult and requires a study of philosophy. But the First Vatican Council has taught us infallibly that it is possible in philosophy, even without revelation, to know with certainty that God exists.

However, the third and chief kind of reason for belief in God is that God has revealed himself to us, first through the Jews and then through his Son, and that he established a Church to make sure that this divine revelation would reach us. The message of Jesus, the character of Jesus, the miracles of Jesus, but especially his resurrection from the dead, and his teaching that he was divine, have convinced us, as they have convinced millions of others in the last two thousand years, that God exists. We have evidence also, in studying the Church’s history, of a multitude of martyrs and saints, of heresies overcome, of hostile governments opposed, and of catastrophes (such as the Barbarian Invasions) outlived. And, of course, revelation’s second great gift to us, after assuring us of God’s existence, is the assurance that God loves us, a fact that is just as important as the fact that he exists; and this love of God for us was something that philosophy arrived at only occasionally, and even then in a weak and partial way.

How privileged we are to be Catholics! So many people in this world don’t have the knowledge of God that we have. Indeed many of them have mistaken notions about him, while we have the Catechism of the Catholic Church and a living Church authority to impart to us a knowledge of the whole of God’s revelation.

Many persons, even Catholics, could have a much better knowledge of God than they have, and are themselves responsible for their lack of sufficient knowledge. They’re responsible because they don’t want to know all about God. It might mean that they would have to change their moral life. Faith is a gift but it’s not forced on us. We have to accept it freely and willingly. And, similarly, the degree of faith we have depends on our freedom too. It’s possible to have the Catholic faith and yet refuse to have a strong faith, to suspect that, if we read more about our faith, prayed harder for an increase of it, and followed it, somehow we’d lose out, that it might remove from our life the sinful pleasures to which we’re attached. St. Augustine knew that he should receive baptism but kept putting it off because he couldn’t give up his mistress. He begged God to enable him to do so, but “not yet.”

This realization should convince us that, if our faith is weak, in order to get to heaven we have to strengthen it by study, by prayer, and by keeping the Commandments. If our faith is lukewarm, it’s our own fault. Augustine finally realized this, and took the necessary steps towards his conversion. And in today’s Gospel we find Zacchaeus being converted because he went to see Jesus.

We will see very clearly on Judgment Day that, from a logical point of view, the only right way to live is to follow the teachings of Christ as they come to us from his Church. Not in a half-hearted way, but fully. Not only would we gain heaven but, on this earth, we would possess a good conscience, the peace of Christ, and the joy of the Holy Spirit. Faith is not enough. It must be a living faith, a faith we really believe.

Suggested reading: Catechism of the Catholic Church, 31-38.

Heaven
32nd Sunday of the Year — November 11

“C” Readings: 2 Mac. 7:1-2, 9-14 • 2 Thess. 2.16- 3:5 • Luke 20:27-28 

Title: Heaven
Purpose: (1) to give the Church’s teaching on heaven, (2) to encourage all to work for heaven as our true home and goal, (3) to explain that man’s end is supernatural and wholly gratuitous.

One reason we come to church on Sunday is to remind ourselves of the purpose of our life. We know that ultimately it is to be happy with God forever in heaven; but it is profitable for us to reflect on what our happiness will be like. If we look at human nature in itself we might think that in the next life we would know God somewhat as in this life, but with the imperfections of our knowledge removed. That is, we would have a very clear knowledge of what he is like, and would think about him all the time.

But God hasn’t called us to a heaven in accord with our nature. He has freely and gratuitously destined us to a heaven above our nature. He has enabled us to do something which only he can do naturally; that is, to see God directly, openly, face to face. In heaven we live with God’s own life. We see the Blessed Trinity as they see themselves; we love them as they love one another; we are happy with their own happiness.

In heaven our happiness will be perfect. In God we shall understand all things, even the deepest mysteries: how there are three persons in one God, how God could become a human being; how he can be present in all the tabernacles of the world at the same time under the appearance of bread and wine; how he knows the future without forcing us to act one way or the other; why he allows the evils of sin and war to occur, and the apparent prosperity of the wicked.

We shall possess all the things people strive for on earth: reputation, riches, and pleasure. Our reputation will be the best; we shall be the intimate associates of God, the Blessed Virgin, the angels, and all the saints. We shall have riches beyond our desires; what does one not possess who possesses him who created all things? And what of bodily pleasures? Children find it hard to believe that the saints don’t eat ice cream or hot dogs. But the reason for this is not merely that their glorified bodies don’t need them. The reason is that the vision of God so fills their souls with joy that it overflows into their bodies and they are incapable of more enjoyment. Bodily delights are but little compared to the joys of the mind. And, if sexual pleasure in this life can delight the emotions and the body, how much more can the vision of God ravish the mind, the emotions, and the body, and fill them through and through with pure ecstasy!

May I invite you to try an experiment? Ask a friend or two what their idea of heaven is. It is quite likely that you will hear a suggestion, open or veiled, that it is less than perfectly satisfying, that there will be some boredom. Perhaps some of us are infected with this notion, so prevalent in our culture. And there is the danger that, because heaven seems less desirable, our efforts to attain it will be slackened.

There is no boredom in heaven. God doesn’t become bored, and in heaven we are happy with God’s happiness. In heaven we know all things, but we don’t know them one at a time, thinking now of some and now of others. We know them all at once. Eternity is not a long stretch of time. It is the possession of all things in an instant. And that instant doesn’t stretch out. It is an everlasting instant, as full of activity as a lightning flash, not a lightning flash that comes and goes, but one whose activity is always there. We know that the beauty of music, of the sunset, and of the starry heavens, is but a distant reflection of the loveliness of God. Yet the music we enjoy on earth ceases to inspire us. The mountains we travel so far to visit cease to awe us. This is because, being creatures, they are limited. But the Creator is unlimited. We shall never recover from the wonder and the awe and the delight of our first encounter with him. It will suffice to enthrall us for eternity.

I have been trying to tell you what heaven is like. But it cannot be done here on earth. Let us put together all our happiest moments and imagine them lasting always. It’s not good enough. As Isaiah and St. Paul have said, “Eye has not seen, nor has ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man to conceive, what things God has prepared for those who love him.”

The seven brothers and their mother who are featured in today’s first reading from the Old Testament willingly suffered martyrdom because they knew that God would reward them with eternal life and the resurrection of their bodies. And in the Gospel Jesus promises us the same thing. You’ve no doubt heard the third verse of The Battle Hymn of the Republic which is found in many of our hymn books: “He has sounded forth the trumpet that will never call retreat. He is counting out the souls of men before his judgment seat. Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer him, be jubilant, my feet. Our God is marching on.” What an extraordinary expression: “Be jubilant, my feet.” Be jubilant, my feet; we are marching to glory!

Suggested reading. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1023-29.

Hell
33rd Sunday of the Year — November 18

“C” Readings: Mal. 4:1-2 • 2 Thess. 3:7-12 • Luke 21:5-19

Title. Hell
Purpose: to (1) present the Church’s teaching on the existence and nature of hell, and (2) inculcate a salutary fear of hell.

This week’s topic is not a pleasant one. Some preachers avoid it, as they avoid other unpleasant topics, such as divorce and remarriage, contraception, cohabitation, abortion, or the grave sin of missing Sunday Mass. Yet Christ preached it many times. It is important that our hearers hear the complete message of Christ.

Today’s first reading tells us that evil people will be severely punished, and the Gospel tells us of the dreadful happenings at the end of the world. It is a fact that sin and punishment are a major part of human history. And what does the Catechism of the Catholic Church tell us about sin and punishment? God wants all persons to be saved; he gives each person sufficient grace for salvation; he suffered and died on the Cross for every human being. But, since human beings are free, they are able to offend God, even seriously. And the holiness and justice of God require that sin be punished. Those who die in the state of grace get to heaven. Those who die outside of God’s grace, in the state of mortal sin, are enemies of God. They have committed a serious sin, or many serious sins, knowingly and willingly, and have not repented of them, even though God’s mercy was always readily available. “Mortal” means “deadly”; they killed the divine life in themselves.

Just as every good deed cries out to God for a reward, so every sin cries out to God for punishment. In this life God punishes sins in such a way as to encourage sinners to reform. However, if ones refuses to reform, if one continues as an enemy of God until death, the time for reform is over; one is sentenced immediately to hell. Though hell is referred to metaphorically as a place where “the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched,” its chief punishment is eternal separation from God, from the source of one’s being, from the goal of one’s existence. Can there be a greater suffering than that coming from the realization that one has thrown away happiness by one’s own fault and that there is no going back? Eternal remorse.

It is fashionable among some worldly Catholics today to deny the very existence of hell. However, it is a doctrine which Scripture teaches frequently and clearly. You will recognize immediately some of these texts:

Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

It were better for that man had he never been born.

It is better for you to enter into everlasting life lame than, having two feet, to be cast into the hell of unquenchable fire where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.

Depart from me, accursed ones, into the everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels.

And these [on the left hand] will go into everlasting punishment, but the just into everlasting life.

And, besides all that, between us and you a great gulf is fixed, so that they who wish to pass over from this side to you cannot, and they cannot cross from your side to us.

It is also fashionable in some Catholic quarters to argue that we can’t be sure that even one particular person is in hell, with the implicit suggestion that the number there is very small or even zero. It is true, of course, that God doesn’t want us to know who or how many persons are in hell, but this doesn’t give us any certainty that the number is small or zero. Of course we can hope and pray that it is. But we should not forget that the fallen angels are in hell. So hell certainly exists. There are also visions of hell in some of the private revelations which today are respected by Catholics because of beatification or canonization of the seers involved.

Does Jesus tell us about hell in order to frighten us? I think he does. We should be afraid of hell. We see on TV today notices about child molesters, and there are programs in schools dealing with them. Why is this alarming subject made public? Because there are child molesters, and children and parents should be warned about them. To be unaware of them could lead to disaster. Similarly, hell does exist and we should know about it. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.

We know that we have to choose between eternal happiness and eternal unhappiness. When we are tempted, what we might do, besides praying, is to concentrate on this great truth. And also on what we are being asked to exchange for the greatest of goods, as Shakespeare warns us in his poem The Rape of Lucrece as he pictures the temptation of Tarquin: “What win I if I gain the thing I seek? A dream, a breath, a froth of fleeting joy. Who buys a minute’s mirth to wail a week? Or sells eternity to gain a toy? For one sweet grape who would the vine destroy? Or what fond beggar, but to touch the crown, would with the scepter straight be strucken down?”

Suggested Readings: Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1033-41.

Christ the King
Feast of Christ the King — November 25

“C” Readings: 2 Sam. 5:1-3 • Col. 1:12-20 • Luke 23:35-43

Title: Purgatory
Purpose: (1) to present the Church’s teaching on the existence and nature of Purgatory; (2) to encourage prayers for our deceased ancestors, relatives, friends, and benefactors, (3) to encourage prayers for all the faithful departed.

Today is the feast of Christ the King. The first reading tells us of the anointing of David as king of the Jews. Every society has to have a unified, organized authority. In Jewish society this authority was the king’s. Some examples of the work of the king were: to make wise laws, to defend his people from attacks from outside; and to judge matter of justice or law-breaking.

Jesus is our king and our Lord. He is called a king because some of his functions resemble those of an earthly king. For example, he explained to us the laws, the right ways of living; he saved us from Satan and sin, our enemies; and when we die he will be our judge. Indeed, as today’s second reading tells us, Jesus is a perfect and universal king, reigning over all creatures, especially human beings and angels, and is the head of the Church.

We know that most earthly kings lived in earthly glory. They had a palace, a throne, and fame. But Jesus was a different kind of king. He emptied himself, Scripture tells us; that is, he left his glory behind, out of sight. He lived as a wandering preacher, he had no place to lay his head, and he died as a criminal, mocked and crucified by those he came to save. But one person, a sinner, had a glimpse of Christ’s glory, and proclaimed it publicly. In our own future there’ll be times when we’ll find it hard to see God in the situation we’re in, when hope alone will sustain us. And, at the last of those times, if we’re in Purgatory, Christ will say to us, “This day you will be with me in Paradise.”

November is the month in which we commemorate the dead who have served Christ faithfully but have not yet heard those words. We make this commemoration especially on November 2nd but also generally throughout the month. In the Book of Maccabees in the Old Testament we read: “It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us: “All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but are still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.” And it continues: “From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic Sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God. The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead.”

We are encouraged to pray even every day for our deceased ancestors, relatives, friends, and benefactors, and especially during November. And we are encouraged also to pray for all the Holy Souls. They cannot help themselves and thus are so dependent on us.

And we will have noticed that, besides praying, there are other ways in which we can help them. One is giving alms for their sake, which I presume means any works of charity. Another is gaining indulgences. We cannot gain plenary indulgences for the dead in exactly the same way as we can for ourselves; but we can gain partial and plenary indulgences for them offered up as God sees fit. And I would think that a multiplicity of these might well come close to a plenary indulgence, a full remission of punishment for their sins. And a third way in which we can help them is offering up works of penance for them. Any sufferings we endure, even if we can’t avoid them, can be offered up for the Holy Souls. Many Catholics are not aware that they may gain a partial indulgence for themselves or for the Souls in Purgatory for every act of charity, for every voluntary act of penance, and for every prayer, however short, “in the performance of their duties and in bearing the trials of life.” To gain these indulgences requires only a general intention to do so.

Of course the best way to minimize punishment for ourselves in Purgatory is to avoid sin and, if we commit it, to purify ourselves by repentance, by Confession, by prayer, by offering up our sufferings, and by performing voluntary acts of penance, especially those acts which help others. “Charity covers a multitude of sins.” It is much more efficacious to offer up the sufferings of this life freely, and to undertake voluntary acts of penance, than it is to suffer in Purgatory, because the former is done freely and the latter necessarily.

I’m tempted to think that Catholics who here on earth help the Souls in Purgatory will find that others will help them if and when their time comes, just as Congressman Henry Hyde says that he thinks that on Judgment Day pro-lifers will be pleasantly surprised to find that the unborn babies whose lives they cared for will join them to plead their cause before the Judge.

Blessed are those who hear Christ say: “This day you will be with me in Paradise.”

Suggested Readings: Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1030-32.

Reverend Leonard A. Kennedy, C.S.B., is a philosophy professor now retired in Toronto, Canada. He was twice president of Catholic colleges in Canada and also Director of the Center for Thomistic Studies at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas. He writes regularly for Challenge and Catholic Insight in Canada.