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Homilies | Sunday, November 01, 2020

We are called to also be citizens of God's Kingdom

Archbishop Wenski's homily at St. Andrew on parish's 50th anniversary

Archbishop Thomas Wenski preached this homily on the feast of All Saints, Nov. 1, 2020, at St. Andrew Church in Coral Springs, on the 50th anniversary of the parish's founding.

All Saints’ Day is a most appropriate day to celebrate the 50th anniversary of St. Andrew’s Parish. On All Saints Day, we honor the memory of those who make up that vast army of the just who already reign with Christ in heaven. And, we can be sure that many of those who worshiped in these pews over the past five decades are already included in that number – as that New Orleans song says: “When the saints go marching in...”

And, if we are gathered here this morning, either here in person or participating virtually, as we do on most Sundays, to celebrate the Mystery of Faith that is the Holy Mass, it is because we too want to be in that number, the number of the blessed, “When the saints go marching in...”

Archbishop Thomas Wenski gives the homily at St. Andrew Church in Coral Springs, during the parish's 50th anniversary Mass. Nov. 1, 2020.

Photographer: JONATHAN MARTINEZ | FC

Archbishop Thomas Wenski gives the homily at St. Andrew Church in Coral Springs, during the parish's 50th anniversary Mass. Nov. 1, 2020.

At any rate, an anniversary reminds us to remember the past with gratitude, to embrace the present with enthusiasm, and to look forward to the future with hope.

Today, we give thanks for the past, the present, and the future of St. Andrew’s Parish. We thank God for all of you – priests and people – for what you have done here for 50 years!

Today’s Gospel reading is taken from Jesus’ Sermon of the Mount. We find this Sermon in the fifth and six chapters of the Gospel according to Matthew. I would encourage you to open your bibles and prayerfully read these two chapters of Matthew in one sitting – just to better appreciate its beauty, its impact and its challenge to each one of us. These teachings of Jesus on the Sermon of the Mount are as important to us Christians as are the teachings of Moses for the Jews when he came down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments. Both Moses and Jesus “lay down the law” telling us what it means to be a member of God’s people.

Baptism has made us children of God and citizens of the Kingdom of God. If earthly kingdoms have their constitutions or “Magna Cartas” so too then does the Kingdom of God. We could say that the Sermon on the Mount is the constitution of those who aspire to be citizens of the Kingdom of God according to the New Covenant, the New Testament, Jesus seals with his blood.

A nation’s constitution spells out the citizens’ rights and duties. For example, the American constitution tells us that we have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But it also insists that we also as citizens have duties – the duty to pay taxes and, if called to, the duty to take up arms to defend our nation.  And, as citizens we also have the right and duty to vote – as we are doing or will have done on Tuesday, November 3rd.

Likewise, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus, as the new Moses, tells us that as citizens of God’s kingdom through baptism, we also have rights: We have a right to the Kingdom of Heaven. As Jesus says, yours is the Kingdom of Heaven. We also have the right to be comforted, to have our thirst for righteousness satisfied, to receive mercy, to be called children of God. But rights do not come without duties. And thus, to follow Jesus and to inherit the Kingdom, we must be peacemakers, we must be meek, we must thirst and hunger for justice, we must be clean of heart, and we must be ready to endure insult and persecution. These beatitudes are this constitution’s preamble. The beatitudes spell out the attitudes that must characterize our life in Christ if we wish to be happy, to be blessed.

A parish – like St. Andrew’s – should strive to be a school of prayer. St. John Paul II used to insist that our Christian communities – and not just some but any “Christian community” worthy of the name – must “become schools of prayer.”

Schools that by teaching us to fall in love with Christ teach us also the true meaning of falling in love with our neighbor. This has been the mission of this parish for 50 years; and it will continue to be the mission of this parish for years to come.

The world tells us that it is good to be important – and so people seek to make their lives meaningful and happy by running after pleasure, power and plunder. Jesus is telling us in his Sermon on the Mount that it is more important to be good. It is not the “beautiful people” that will be blessed or happy but rather those people whom the world might consider as “nobodies” and insignificant or even as “losers” because they embrace the cost of discipleship and struggle to love and live the truth of the Gospel. It is these unknown saints we honor today on All Saints’ Day – and, in honoring them and seeking their intercession, we remind ourselves that we are called to be also citizens of God’s Kingdom, we are called to be saints – imitating the example of those who have preceded us into heaven – by making those beatitudes our attitudes.

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