There are classical questions and there are the kinds of strange questions I often ask at the beginning of my homilies.1 Today I’m combining both types. I have a classic question which is also a strange one. It’s this: “Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet?” After all, “a rose is a rose” isn’t it? But what if a rose is not rose-colored, but is yellow like the rose of Texas? How can we have a “yellow” rose?
Yes, questions can be strange, as strange as the words making them up. Today’s Gospel begins with a question, a strange question. It was asked by a “scholar of the law” who wanted to put Jesus on the spot, who hoped to ridicule this wandering rabbi who had been making their religious leaders look like fools. No, this scholar was not a lawyer, not a man who prosecuted or defended criminals, but rather a scholar of Torah, the laws of Moses.
And so this scholar who knew the laws of Moses asked a question. Of the hundreds of laws handed down from the days of Moses, which is the greatest, which is the most important commandment? And Jesus replied there are, in fact, two joined laws, two commandments of the Lord God, that are more important than all of the others put together. And they are: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind; and second, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Love God, neighbor, self. Three individuals in a deep relationship of love. God – the other whom I cannot see. Neighbor – the other whom I can see. Self – the one who must relate to the community around me and above me. A community of saints, a community of blessed individuals. God. Neighbor. Me. A community which shares a communion, a gathering of individuals who share a oneness.
When we restate the beliefs of the first Christians, those beliefs summarized in the Creed of the Apostles, we say we believe in “the communion of saints,” a communion, a oneness, with those who live with us and those who have gone before us. A communion with those who have died and are with the Lord God, the saints of heaven who pray for us. A communion with those who have died and will be with the Lord God, the departed souls for whom we pray. And we, ourselves. We, who are prayed for and who pray for others.
As you leave Mass, today, each family, and each person here without a family living with them, should receive from the greeters at each door a copy of this booklet: Generations of Faith. This booklet is the first part of an ongoing effort, which is why there are holes punched in it, so you can gather them into a single binder. We hope this series will become a source for helping to transmit our living faith from one generation to the next, from one person to another. At first glance, it might appear we’ve put together just another coloring book or puzzle book for young children. But if you look more closely, you should find information that can make our adult beliefs come alive about our “Community of Saints.”
This is an especially good time of the liturgical year for us to think, and pray, about the transmittal of our faith and our ongoing love for God and for others. On Friday, November 1, we again celebrate the “Feast of All Saints,” the feast for all of our relatives and friends who are with God but have not been recognized in the official list, the official canon, of the saints of the church. At noon on Saturday, November 2, we’ll celebrate a Mass for the “Feast of All Souls,” the feast day for all of our friends and relatives who are on the “waiting list” to enter heaven, a waiting list that includes all of us, too.
We also hope you’ll enjoy participating in the culture of others who honor departed souls with special altars. Over the coming days, you’ll see examples of them in our narthex. We invite you to visit the walls of our saints, those on the official list, the ones who have been canonized, and those who are on the unofficial lists, the rest of us. We would welcome your family photos to be shown on our narthex wall during the month of November. Actually, these photos are pictures of models. No, not the ones who appear in fashion magazines, but more important, the ones St Paul spoke about two millennia ago to the Thessalonians, when he said: “… you became imitators of us and of the Lord, receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the Holy Spirit, so that you became a model for all the believers …”
Yes, that is who saints are: the men and women who are the patrons, the guides, the models for what we do. All of them possess the joy of the Holy Spirit and are imitators, images, of Christ. They are models for all Christian believers. They are the ones who have passed the faith on from generation to generation, just as we are called to do.
At the same time, we also remember words have more than one meaning: we can, indeed, have a “yellow” rose. And so it is with “generation,” a word for all people who are of the same age. However, “generation” can also mean new growth, a new beginning. Generations of Faith, the title of this booklet, can mean a transmittal of faith from one age to another. It can also mean a new growth in faith, new beginnings for a faith which may still be a tiny mustard seed, but which can grow into a mighty tree. A tree with roots in the past, a sturdy trunk in the present, and branches reaching to the future. A tree that grows and flowers. A tree yielding fruit because of the love it receives. A love that begins with our own self. A love we share with our neighbors. A love we give to our God. A God who, from the time of the Exodus, has reminded us: “If you cry out to me, I will hear you, for I am compassionate.” A God who urges us to share this compassion with our neighbors, with all those who are destined to being saints.
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary; October 27, 2002
Ex 22:20 -26; 1 Thess 1:5c-10; Mt 22:34-40
- The “Generations of Faith” is a national program for family faith formation. The parish staff, spearheading this program, requested that I give a “homily” to kick off the program. It was also to incorporate concepts relating to the coming November Holy Days: All Saints and All Souls. The cultural and parish events relating to these “days of the dead” were to be included in this teaching homily.