Br. Jerome Zeiler All Saints Vigil Preaching
November 4th, 2008 by Br. James Brent, O.P.
Br. Jerome Zeiler All Saints Vigil Preaching
November 4th, 2008 by Br. James Brent, O.P.
Br. Jerome Zeiler, O.P., a third year student brother in formation for the priesthood at the Dominican House of Studies, preached the homily at this year’s All Saints Vigil.
Below please find the text of this homily:
“Perhaps this is a historic night. For perhaps someone here tonight will make the same kind of historic choice that St. Paul made. For just as in the life of St. Paul, there was a miraculous moment in the life of every saint, when he or she first decided in the depths of his or her being to unconditionally surrender to the love of Christ. And this kind of choice always changes history.
There was a moment in the life of Mother Theresa when she first chose to give her life to the poorest of the poor so that they might be made abundantly rich in Christ. And the rest is history.
There was a moment in the life of St. Dominic when he first chose to expose his life to every hardship and danger so that the Truth, who is the Word Incarnate, might rest safe and sound. And the rest is history.
There was a moment when the Blessed Virgin Mary, our mother, simply said, in the depths of her heart, “Let it be done to me according to thy word.” And the Word was made flesh. And the rest is history.
In one moment, these men and women surrendered their lives. In one instant, they found Life Himself. And anchored in the love of Christ, they inevitably became those whom they were destined to be from before the foundation of the world.
I am not saying that someone can become a saint in one day. As we all know, one must continually make the choice to love God with one’s whole mind, and with one’s whole heart, and with all one’s strength each and every day. But it is always the same choice. And it is always made for the same reason. And the reason is this:
This is a love story – all of this.
We were all created for one reason, to come to know God and thus to fall in love with Him for all eternity. Not by nature, and not in proportion with our natural desires, but simply by the gratuitous will of God, all of us in this chapel have a supernatural destiny.
Before God knit us in our mother’s womb, he knew us, and he loved us, and he destined us for Himself, and that makes this is a love story. Our hearts are beating for the sake of this. Our lungs are continually breathing in and breathing out, whether we consider it or not, for the sake of this. The earth rounds the sun again and again for the sake of this. The four seasons come and go for the sake of this. And 13 billion years ago, this universe sprang into being, and time began for the sake of this.
This is a love story, and it is Jesus Christ, Truth and Goodness Himself, who loves us. This is why the Little Flower rightly sings her perpetual refrain: all is grace. And this is the cause of St. Philip Neri’s unbounded joy and mirth.
The saints pondered these things with great wonder, and so should we. What more could we possibly ask for? What desire do we have that Christ cannot satisfy? What thirst do we have that He cannot quench? Why spend our money to buy money bags with holes in them? Why not spend all our money to buy the field in which this infinite treasure lies? We lose nothing in the purchase.
Truly, knowing what we know, the only sadness, when all is said and done, is not to be a saint. But because this is a love story, we have every reason to hope that we too can become a saint. It bears repeating, we have every reason to hope that we too can become a saint.
We are all the children of Adam and Eve, who in the core of their being, preferred their own artificial definition of happiness to what was gratuitously offered to them, a participation in God’s own life.
And Satan at that time rejoiced, in his unfathomable hatred and envy, because he thought that Adam and Eve’s children would forever be spiritual orphans, not knowing their true Father and not knowing their true home. And thus he thought that this love story was destined to be the saddest story ever told.
But that Great Deceiver was greatly deceived, for he underestimated the unfathomable depths of God’s love for us. But as he now knows, better than we do, nothing is more powerful than God’s love for us:
Out of love for us, God came down from heaven, and became one of us. To manifest the depths of his love, he freely chose to suffer and die on the cross. And rising on the third day, he demonstrated beyond any doubt the power of His love over the pain and death of sin.
And as if that were not enough, as if it were a little too abstract, in case we might imagine it to be some event that happened a long time ago in a land far away, Christ comes down from heaven still today here in this place, becoming our very food and drink in the Sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist.
If this God is for us, who can be against us? What can prevent love like this from also making us saints, if only we are willing?
Neither should not be discouraged by the stark contrast between what we are now and what the saints came to be. No saint ever began at the end. St. Augustine began with the prayer, “Lord, give me chastity, but not now.” St. Jerome was told by our Lord that he was more of a Ciceronian than a Christian. And St. Theresa of Avila was a lukewarm religious for 18 years.
No saint began in the ecstasy of love which they now experience. They all began only with the mustard seed of faith, and a clear call from God. With that, they simply acted in accordance with reason.
They made the only rational choice available to them. They simply believed what they knew to be the testimony of the Eternally Begotten Son of God.
They simply understood something every child understands: Truth himself cannot lie. And like a very small child, who has not yet learned how to doubt, who latches onto his Father’s finger, with all the force of his fragile fist, so did the saints grasp on to God and let Him lead them – and sometimes carry them - wherever He willed. They trusted him when He told them that this is a love story. They believed Him when He said, “I came that you might have life, and have it abundantly.” Having believed, they tasted. And having tasted, they fell in love.
We are surrounded by darkness, the darkness of atheistic nihilism and the culture of death, which proclaims that we came from nothing, and that we are going back to nothing, and that human life is ultimately meaningless, marriage is meaningless, everything is meaningless - and that the best we can do is seek some small pleasure or distraction in the passing trifles of this meaningless world, but, thanks be to God, this darkness has not overcome the light which shines within our souls.
We also believe.
We also have had a little taste of the sweet love Our Lord, Jesus Christ. That is why we have come here tonight. The story has already begun.
Now, as we all know, being a saint is not easy. Our battle is not against flesh and blood. No saint ever won the crown without a bloody fight.
And although Christ may not ask of us physical martyrdom, as He did of St. Dominic Ibanez, we well know that He will one day also ask of us complete self-sacrifice. But as we also read again, and again, and again in the lives of the saints, nothing, nothing at all gave them more ecstatic joy than being reviled, and persecuted, and suffering in every way for the love of Jesus Christ.
Why? Because it makes for a better love story. In fact, in a mysterious way, it makes for the perfect love story. It makes for the perfect manifestation of love, which is something love strongly desires.
This past summer, I read a completely secular article about a certain movie that was breaking all the box-office records for most ticket sales. But despite the appearances, the author of the article said that the movie would most certainly not be the best-selling movie of all time. He said that the best-selling movie of all time must have these 3 essential elements:
1.) First of all and most importantly, on the whole, it must be a love story.
2.) It must entail a clear-cut battle between good and evil
3.) At the center of it, there must be a self-sacrificing hero
He said that this is the only kind of movie that men and women, young and old, will come back and actually pay to see again, and again, and again. This is the only kind of story people simply can’t get enough of.
Now, who cannot see that this is the story of Christianity? And who cannot see that this is the story of the life of every saint? And who of us here does not want this to be the story of our life?
Brothers and sisters, what can separate us from the love of Christ? If God is for us, who can be against us? And what can prevent this story from being the story of our life – one which we, like little children when it is time to rest, will never tire of having read to us again, and again, and again as we live happily ever after with Jesus Christ our Lord, the Blessed Virgin Mary, our mother, and all the saints in our true home for all eternity?”
