| Calvary Episcopal Church, Rockdale |
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| THE 25th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST The Sunday After All Saints’ Day 6 November, 2005 The Rev. Robert C. Granfeldt |
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Yesterday, at the Diocesan Convention, we had a guest speaker at the Noonday Prayers:
Justin Cardinal Rigali, Archbishop of Philadelphia. It was, our Bishop pointed out, the first
time in the over two hundred year history of our Diocese, that a Roman Catholic Cardinal
Archbishop has appeared at our convention.
And in his remarks, he mentioned Mother Teresa – which was a bit of a coincidence,
since I had mentioned Mother Teresa in a homily earlier in the week – and, in truth,
believe it or not, I can go, oh…., months at a time without ever thinking, let alone
speaking, about Mother Teresa!
But last week I did – and I did it in the context of All Saints’ Day, which was Tuesday!
In fact, this is the fourth time in the past week that I’ve done All Saints’ Day – Tuesday at
Fair Acres, Wednesday, here, and Thursday at Riddle Village. All Saints Day is the only
one of the Major Feasts of the Church deemed both so worthy of observance and so
likely to be overlooked when it falls on a weekday, that it may be transferred to the
following Sunday. So when appropriate, I will celebrate it on its own day, the following
Sunday, and any open days in between when I’m celebrating mass. So if any of you have
already heard some of what I have to say, today, please forgive me – ‘cause at this point I
have no idea what, exactly, I said where!
Anyway – I did mention Mother Teresa – but only to say, “I never knew her!” In fact, I
observed that I also never knew St Thomas Aquinas; or St. Paul (thank God!), or St. Peter,
or St. Swithan or any of the countless Souls who have their own day on our Liturgical
Kalendar – the saints of the Church! I’ve never known any of those people – any of
those “famous” people, whose praises we sing on their individual Feast Days!
But today is a little different, as our first lesson, this morning, should make clear,
because it doesn’t stop with singing the praises of those famous people! It goes on to
speak of other people! People of whom no one has ever heard! And this lesson from
Ecclesiasticus becomes one of the few places in scripture – perhaps the only place,
though today’s Gospel, the Beatitudes comes close – that recognizes there are those
other people – anonymous people; people who never accomplished anything that would
make them famous; who never performed any of those great feats that would cause their
names to be remembered – but who, nevertheless, were notable for who they were,
remarkable in their effect on the people in their lives, indeed, saints in their own fashion.
And it did occur to me that I have known that kind of saint!
And it has occurred to me that you probably have, too!
Few of us have ever even met – let alone known – a Mother Teresa, a Saint Francis
Assisi, a St. Claire – but we have known this other kind!
I’ve spent some time, this past week, thinking about the saints’ I’ve known in my life –
trying to understand what, about them made them saints, for me – and I’m still struggling
to understand. This is not, in fact, so much a sermon as a sharing with you this struggle
to understand what it is about the saints I’ve known. It does seem plain to me that these
“saintly” people I’ve known would never have considered themselves saints, never
think of themselves as “holy”, certainly; most, I think, would not even have considered
themselves religious. Yet it seemed to me, as I thought, that they had about them a kind
of wholeness and completeness that made them stand out, that made them, somehow,
inspire! They were not “goodie-two-shoes;” not “holier than thou” types. But they were
just somehow more complete and more comfortable in their completeness – comfortable
in their own skins and comfortable in this world – and made me feel more complete and
more comfortable just by being with them – made me feel more whole!
And as I thought, I was more than a little surprised to realize the person who most came
to mind was my own father! – a good man, a simple man – a machinist; a lathe hand – who,
I found out only at his funeral, touched a lot of people in his life, and who simply moved
them to be better than they were, to be more complete than they were – a person whom
people loved for his own quiet wholeness!
In fact, when I first began to think of him in this way, I tried, but I couldn’t come up with
any real faults in my father – who was just a quiet, unassuming, loving man!
Now, I will admit, I have since then come up with a fault, a real fault, that I might actually
speak to you about, one day in a different context, a different sermon! But a fault that
never really stood in the way of his being who he was, of affecting people as he did!
But this is not about my father. It’s about All those unnamed, remarkable but unremarked
people in our own lives – all those people we have known that have touched us, each in
some special way – people whose praises we do not sing, whose faces will not be
remembered through the ages – but who were, nevertheless, in our lives, saintly
presences – saints in their own, small ways.
And what I want to do, this morning, is something I never did, before, until these
thoughts came to me this week.
I want you to pause with me for just about a minute, and close your eyes, with me, and
think. Think about that person – or even about those persons – in your own life, who
were, to you, saints; who somehow mediated God’s grace to you; who touched you as
others have not; who have made you a better person than you would have been without
him or her!
Just stop and pause with me for one minute to remember – and then to give thanks for
the gift of that person – or those persons in your life!
(Silence)
* (You know, every time I’ve done this, I find more of my personal saints coming to mind –
more of those people who graced my life and blessed me just in being who they were.)
Let us pray.
Father, we thank you for the gift of your saints in our lives – those special people who
you have given us to be agents of your grace, to make us more than we would have
been, more than we could have been, without them. And we ask you, father, to make of
us saints for others of your people, to use us as you used them, to inspire others as they
inspired us.
Make of us, as you made of them, saints of our generation, to the praise of your name,
and for the good, the well-being, the wholeness and the holiness of your people.
All this we pray in Jesus Christ’s name. Amen.
*This comment added at the second service on
today.
Justin Cardinal Rigali, Archbishop of Philadelphia. It was, our Bishop pointed out, the first
time in the over two hundred year history of our Diocese, that a Roman Catholic Cardinal
Archbishop has appeared at our convention.
And in his remarks, he mentioned Mother Teresa – which was a bit of a coincidence,
since I had mentioned Mother Teresa in a homily earlier in the week – and, in truth,
believe it or not, I can go, oh…., months at a time without ever thinking, let alone
speaking, about Mother Teresa!
But last week I did – and I did it in the context of All Saints’ Day, which was Tuesday!
In fact, this is the fourth time in the past week that I’ve done All Saints’ Day – Tuesday at
Fair Acres, Wednesday, here, and Thursday at Riddle Village. All Saints Day is the only
one of the Major Feasts of the Church deemed both so worthy of observance and so
likely to be overlooked when it falls on a weekday, that it may be transferred to the
following Sunday. So when appropriate, I will celebrate it on its own day, the following
Sunday, and any open days in between when I’m celebrating mass. So if any of you have
already heard some of what I have to say, today, please forgive me – ‘cause at this point I
have no idea what, exactly, I said where!
Anyway – I did mention Mother Teresa – but only to say, “I never knew her!” In fact, I
observed that I also never knew St Thomas Aquinas; or St. Paul (thank God!), or St. Peter,
or St. Swithan or any of the countless Souls who have their own day on our Liturgical
Kalendar – the saints of the Church! I’ve never known any of those people – any of
those “famous” people, whose praises we sing on their individual Feast Days!
But today is a little different, as our first lesson, this morning, should make clear,
because it doesn’t stop with singing the praises of those famous people! It goes on to
speak of other people! People of whom no one has ever heard! And this lesson from
Ecclesiasticus becomes one of the few places in scripture – perhaps the only place,
though today’s Gospel, the Beatitudes comes close – that recognizes there are those
other people – anonymous people; people who never accomplished anything that would
make them famous; who never performed any of those great feats that would cause their
names to be remembered – but who, nevertheless, were notable for who they were,
remarkable in their effect on the people in their lives, indeed, saints in their own fashion.
And it did occur to me that I have known that kind of saint!
And it has occurred to me that you probably have, too!
Few of us have ever even met – let alone known – a Mother Teresa, a Saint Francis
Assisi, a St. Claire – but we have known this other kind!
I’ve spent some time, this past week, thinking about the saints’ I’ve known in my life –
trying to understand what, about them made them saints, for me – and I’m still struggling
to understand. This is not, in fact, so much a sermon as a sharing with you this struggle
to understand what it is about the saints I’ve known. It does seem plain to me that these
“saintly” people I’ve known would never have considered themselves saints, never
think of themselves as “holy”, certainly; most, I think, would not even have considered
themselves religious. Yet it seemed to me, as I thought, that they had about them a kind
of wholeness and completeness that made them stand out, that made them, somehow,
inspire! They were not “goodie-two-shoes;” not “holier than thou” types. But they were
just somehow more complete and more comfortable in their completeness – comfortable
in their own skins and comfortable in this world – and made me feel more complete and
more comfortable just by being with them – made me feel more whole!
And as I thought, I was more than a little surprised to realize the person who most came
to mind was my own father! – a good man, a simple man – a machinist; a lathe hand – who,
I found out only at his funeral, touched a lot of people in his life, and who simply moved
them to be better than they were, to be more complete than they were – a person whom
people loved for his own quiet wholeness!
In fact, when I first began to think of him in this way, I tried, but I couldn’t come up with
any real faults in my father – who was just a quiet, unassuming, loving man!
Now, I will admit, I have since then come up with a fault, a real fault, that I might actually
speak to you about, one day in a different context, a different sermon! But a fault that
never really stood in the way of his being who he was, of affecting people as he did!
But this is not about my father. It’s about All those unnamed, remarkable but unremarked
people in our own lives – all those people we have known that have touched us, each in
some special way – people whose praises we do not sing, whose faces will not be
remembered through the ages – but who were, nevertheless, in our lives, saintly
presences – saints in their own, small ways.
And what I want to do, this morning, is something I never did, before, until these
thoughts came to me this week.
I want you to pause with me for just about a minute, and close your eyes, with me, and
think. Think about that person – or even about those persons – in your own life, who
were, to you, saints; who somehow mediated God’s grace to you; who touched you as
others have not; who have made you a better person than you would have been without
him or her!
Just stop and pause with me for one minute to remember – and then to give thanks for
the gift of that person – or those persons in your life!
(Silence)
* (You know, every time I’ve done this, I find more of my personal saints coming to mind –
more of those people who graced my life and blessed me just in being who they were.)
Let us pray.
Father, we thank you for the gift of your saints in our lives – those special people who
you have given us to be agents of your grace, to make us more than we would have
been, more than we could have been, without them. And we ask you, father, to make of
us saints for others of your people, to use us as you used them, to inspire others as they
inspired us.
Make of us, as you made of them, saints of our generation, to the praise of your name,
and for the good, the well-being, the wholeness and the holiness of your people.
All this we pray in Jesus Christ’s name. Amen.
*This comment added at the second service on
today.
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