My Sisters and Brothers:
On this Solemnity of All Saints, I believe it is a good and very holy thing to proclaim that the Christian Church “celebrates diversity.” Today, and in a special way, we rejoice with all of the saints, those faithful sisters and brothers who when on earth lived in every part of the world, spoke every possible language, and embraced every culture! What they completed in whatever place they lived on earth, and what they have now become in heaven, is exactly what each one of us aspires to do and to be. That is, no matter whom we have been, who we are now, or from where we have come, and/or are today, we too hope to be saints with them in our own future heavenly glory! We have confidence that, when that time comes, we too will enjoy forever the fullness of life in the presence of our Loving God with them, that vast multi-cultural assembly!
In today’s first reading, and contemplating this heavenly reality, we heard in the words of the Apostle John that he “had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue . . . and they stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands” (see Revelation 7:9). These words give me both comfort and joy as they indeed and clearly proclaim the saints in heaven to be a very diverse and dynamic community. Doesn’t this exactly describe the Church on Earth, the community of the faithful assembled in so many different and diverse places throughout the world?
Aren’t we too, the people of our parish, a wonderful example in miniature of the same kind of diversity found in the Universal Christian Church? Can’t we then say that the community that meets right here in our own parish church is striving as best as it can to be an image of that diverse and dynamic community of saints in heaven? That surely is what we are called to be! We are people who come from different nations and states, we have different cultural and ethnic backgrounds, and some of us even speak different languages! Although we are not yet perfected, we are indeed a smaller version of both the broader and still journeying Christian Church, and that very great and diverse, and now unblemished multitude of saints in heaven described by the Apostle John in the Book of Revelation!
Therefore, we can boldly proclaim that those of us who now form a very diverse and multi-cultural Church on Earth surely desire to attain that same holiness now enjoyed by that dynamic community of our sisters and brothers who are already saints in heaven! They inspire and motivate us, because like us they represent every nation, race, people, and tongue!
My friends, may we celebrate the fullness our diversity and all of those things that make our community such a multi-patterned quilt of people! Let us march onward together to our promised heavenly home, always respecting and celebrating that diversity that brings such variety to who we are as a community of people-striving-to-be-saints!
Praise God! Friar Timothy
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