Yet, I find some comedy – well actually – humiliation in this picture. When I received this picture and came across it a few weeks ago I thought of today’s feast day and the cultural celebration of Halloween.. All Saints’ Day and Halloween - a day of great masks compared to a day of authenticity. A day when we dress up and perhaps seek to become who we want to be or dream to be – balanced against a day of utter authenticity.
This challenges me and maybe you – because if I’m honest the person standing in front of you is a bigger phony than the kid in the picture. And with great honesty, I wonder if each one of us might say the same about ourselves.
There are three qualities that I’d like to suggest we need to look at this morning. There are many we could look but perhaps these three can focus our prayer and reflection this day.
The saints show us insecurity and vulnerability. When we encounter the writings and lives of the saints, we encounter women and men who were not necessarily the most confident in their abilities and talents. They questioned, in many cases, why God choose them or how God would use them. Their acknowledgement of their weakness, of their vulnerability, attracts us to them. I don’t know a person – who is sitting in this Chapel today or not – who does not struggle with insecurity. Yet we’re not as good as facing it. We hide ourselves in work, in relationships, statuses. The saint embraced their brokenness and used it as a means to embrace those they were called to serve and to embrace the Lord.
The saints teach us about intimacy. In their brokenness, their vulnerability, they seek to grow closer to the Lord. It’s one thing in our lives to know about God – to study, debate, publicly worship. We do that well and it’s good. However, it is all a waste of time unless its based in our ongoing relationship with and desire to know God – to be willing to fall more deeply in love with him each and every day. What prevents us from falling more deeply in love with God?
Finally, the saints teach us integrity, they teach us about authenticity. They are most clearly who God has called them to be – in some cases entirely undaunted by what those around them might think. I have to admit something else to you today. I am a “Parrotthead”. That’s a name given to Jimmy Buffett fans. That’s another homily. He wrote and sang a song about culture and when it came to religion, he says, “There is a fine line between Saturday night and Sunday morning”. For the saints, there was no fine line. They were who they were. Can the same be said be about us? We sit here this morning most holy and prayerful – will the same spirit reside in us in a few minutes at breakfast? We’ll pray beautifully and prayerfully at Mass this afternoon. Will have that same spirit this evening in B-wing or in conversations with one another today. We can lack integrity and authenticity more often then we want to admit or acknowledge. What is preventing us from become our true and best selves?
So truthfully, there are times, more than I’d like to admit that the man standing here is more a phony than they guy in the picture. Yet, I pray, and I hope you do, too, that we might seek the “wisdom and insight” of the saints. With that wisdom and insight, let’s pray we can recognize our vulnerabilities and weaknesses, grow closer to our God and in so doing more authentically live the life God has called us to be - men (and women) of holiness.
Scripture Text:
A reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians.
May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and perception of what is revealed, to bring you to full knowledge of him. May he enlighten the eyes
of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you, what rich glories he has promised the saints will inherit.
The Word of the Lord.
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