Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever, Amen.
We exist. We exist with others. We also exist with the One who caused us to be who we are. One of the reasons why God has created us is to spend our life with Him. In Him, our life is sustained with His grace. Through His grace we continue to deepen our understanding about God who has shared his life with us. The initiative of God to offer his life to us is an act of love in its totality. Sending His beloved Son to us beautifully summarizes the infinite goodness He has for the humankind. This unfathomable yet concrete sacrificial love of God continues to invite all of us to respond to His call with the same attitude of love. When we live out God’s love, we also live out God’s holiness in us. Proclaiming the holiness of God should be always accompanied by our love, which is manifested in the way we live and relate with others. It is impossible to show love without desiring to be holy. Holiness may not be our constant preoccupation in this life, but our life as baptized Christians has been pushing us to really be witnesses of God’s holiness.
Attaining holiness seems to be a very arduous mission to accomplish now a days. However, we should not declare that it is impossible to achieve. With God everything remains possible. Our liturgical celebrations of All Saints’ Day as well as All Souls’ Day in this month of November particularly reminds us that each one of us has full potentiality to be holy. We share in the life of God. And God, through the Holy Spirit has been sharing his life with us. It is in this mutual act of sharing that holiness becomes even more possible to us. Deep inside our heart, there is this continuous yearning for God that leads us to take the path to holiness. A life of holiness is the best preparation that we can do as we are waiting for the second coming of Christ. The gospel reading this weekend speaks about how everything will pass away except God’s words. Why? Because the word of God is powerful, and it is the most efficient instrument for us to direct us into a life of holiness. After all, we don’t merely exist. We exist to be holy. We exist to show God’s holiness. We exist to let holiness exists in us.
May God bless you and your family,
Fr. Joel Ricafranca, RCJ