Dear Brothers and Sisters, Fiat

 “When the Lord invites us to become saints, he doesn’t call us to something heavy, sad… quite the contrary! It’s an invitation to share in his joy, to live and to offer with joy every moment of our life, by making it become at the same time a gift of love for the people around us”.(Pope Francis)

The Feast of All Saints that we are celebrating today reminds us that the goal of our existence is not death, it is Paradise! The Apostle John writes: “it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is (1 Jn 3:2). The Saints — who are the friends of God — assure us of this promise which does not disappoint. During their earthly existence they lived in profound communion with God. In the faces of the humblest and least of our brothers, the smallest and most despised brothers, they saw the face of God, and now they contemplate him face to face in his glorious beauty.

The Saints are not supermen, nor were they born perfect. They are like us, like each one of us. They are people who, before reaching the glory of heaven, lived normal lives with joys and sorrows, struggles and hopes. What changed their lives? When they recognized God’s love, they followed it with all their heart without reserve or hypocrisy. They spent their lives serving others, they endured suffering and adversity without hatred and responded to evil with good, spreading joy and peace. This is the life of a Saint. The Saints never hated. The Saints are men and women who have joy in their hearts and they spread it to others. Never hate but serve others, the most needy; pray and live in joy. This is the way of holiness!

Being holy is not a privilege for the few, as if someone had a large inheritance; in Baptism we all have an inheritance to be able to become saints. Holiness is a vocation for everyone. Thus we are all called to walk on the path of holiness, and this path has a name and a face: the face of Jesus Christ. He teaches us to become saints. In the Gospel he shows us the way, the way of the Beatitudes (cf. Mt 5:1-12). The Kingdom of Heaven is for those who do not place their security in material things but in love for God, for those who have a simple, humble heart that does not presume to be just and does not judge others, for those who know how to suffer with those who suffer and how to rejoice when others rejoice. They are not violent but merciful and strive to be instruments for reconciliation and peace. Saints, whether men or women, are instruments for reconciliation and peace; they are always helping people to become reconciled and helping to bring about peace. Thus holiness is beautiful, it is a beautiful path! (Pope Francis)

Jesus said to Luisa that only His Will brings true happiness.  It alone encloses all goods within the soul, and making Itself crown around the soul, constitutes her queen of true happiness. Only these souls will be the queens of God’s  throne, because they are a birth from His Will.

Many met Jesus when He came to earth but did not know Him, because the Divine Will did not reside within them as center of life. Therefore, even if they saw Him, they remained unhappy. Only those who received the good of receiving the seed of the Divine  Will in their hearts disposed themselves to receive the good of seeing Jesus resurrected.

Now, the portent of His Redemption was the Resurrection, which, more than refulgent sun, crowned Jesus’ Humanity, making even His littlest acts shine, with such splendor and marvel as to astonish Heaven and earth. The Resurrection will be the beginning, the foundation and the fulfillment of all goods – crown and glory of all the Blessed.

Jesus’ Resurrection is the true sun which worthily glorifies His Humanity; It is the glory of every Christian. Without Resurrection, it would have been as though heavens without sun, without heat and without life. Now, His Resurrection is the symbol of the souls who will form their sanctity in the Divine Will.

The Saints of the past centuries symbolize His Humanity. Although resigned, they did not have continuous act in His Will; therefore, they did not receive the mark of the sun of His Resurrection, but the mark of the works of His Humanity before His Resurrection. Therefore, they will be many; almost like stars, they will form a beautiful ornament to the Heaven of His Humanity.

But the Saints of the living in the Divine Will, who will symbolize His Resurrected Humanity, will be few. In fact, many throngs and crowds of people saw Jesus’ Humanity, but few saw His Resurrected Humanity – only the believers, those who were most,  only those who contained the seed of the Divine Will. In fact, if they did not have that seed, they would have lacked the necessary sight to be able to see His Resurrected and glorious Humanity, and therefore be spectators of His ascent into Heaven.

Now, if His Resurrection symbolizes the Saints of the living in the Divine Will – and this with reason, since each act, word, step, etc. done in God’s Will is a divine resurrection that the soul receives; it is a mark of glory that she receives; it is to go out of herself in order to enter the Divinity, and to love, work and think, hiding herself in the refulgent sun of the Divine Volition – what is the wonder if the soul remains fully risen and identified with the very sun of His glory, and symbolizes His Resurrected Humanity?

But few are those who dispose themselves to this, because even in sanctity, souls want something for their own good; while the Sanctity of living in the Divine Will has nothing of its own  everything is of God. It takes too much for souls to dispose themselves to this – to strip themselves of their own goods. Therefore, they will not be many.

Today, through this feast, the Saints give us a message. They tell us: trust in the Lord because the Lord does not disappoint! He never disappoints, he is a good friend always at our side. Through their witness the Saints encourage us to not be afraid of going against the tide or of being misunderstood and mocked when we speak about him and the Gospel; by their life they show us that he who stays faithful to God and to his Word experiences the comfort of his love on this earth and then a “hundredfold” in eternity. “Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven”.

don Marco