Some years ago the authorities in a certain section of China decided to introduce football into their native land. The school teachers were told to teach their boys the game. They sent for a number of rule books; translated them into Chinese; and then asked their pupils to copy out page after page of these rules and learn them by heart.
After the boys had memorized the rules, the teachers gave lectures on the game. The lectures were followed by written tests. You can imagine how discouraging the results.
About that time an American happened to visit the principal village in that district. Some of the lads told him of their desire to play football and of their efforts to learn the game.
"Good heavens," the visitor shouted, "you'll never learn to play football that way. The only way to learn is by playing."
He bought a football, took the boys out on a field, and in an hour's time taught them more about football than they had learned from books in the past six weeks.
During the past year we have been thinking about the rules for the great game of life. We have thought about prayer, and the laws of Mother Church, and the virtues that go to make a true follower of Christ. But, unless we see those virtues in practice, unless we see the program carried out, it is difficult for us to understand, and still more difficult for us to carry it out.
Accordingly, on this great feast of All Saints we might dwell on the thought, among others, that the saints really put all this theory into practice. They really show us how to follow Christ. They not only tell us, explain to us, and show us the rule book. They actually show us how to do it.
1. The feast we celebrate today dates back to the 8th century, though it was already mentioned in the 4th century. Pope Boniface IV converted the Pantheon in Rome to a Christian temple of worship. The Pantheon was the gallery of all the gods. How much more meaningful it became when it housed the images and shrines of the special friends of the one, true God.
2. Mother Church had many reasons for establishing this feast, and has many reasons for keeping it today:
A. She wants us to remember and honor all the saints in heaven. Their3. All Saints' day has many lessons:
number is legion; it is impossible to have a feast for each one. Furthermore, there are literally millions of holy souls whose very names have been forgotten, who lead lives of sanctity. All these we include in today's celebration. We also include the saintly souls of our own times, heroic mothers, virtuous fathers, Christ-like sons and daughters, who followed our Lord just like the saints in the official lists of Mother Church. All of them we honor today. Perhaps your mother and my mother are among them.
B. We want to thank God for His graces and mercies to the saints. Deep-dyed sinners like St. Augustine and St. Margaret of Cortona were changed by God's grace into men and women of God.
C. Mother Church established this feast to give us an example. She wants us to remember that all the saints carried out the program of Christ. We even have for the Gospel today the Eight Beatitudes, on which we meditated before. Look into the lives of the saints and you will find those blessings in abundance.
D. Mother Church wants to encourage us in our weakness and embarrass us in our lukewarmness. We think it can't be done. We think it impossible - to be poor in spirit, to be merciful, to be pure, to be just - until, yes, until we see the saints doing those very things in an heroic way.
On the other hand, the Church wants to shame us, as it were, into doing good and being good. You have all noticed a mother correcting a child by pointing to the good things done by another: "There, look at Mary. She puts away her toys when she is finished playing with them."
E. We honor the saints today in order to obtain their intercession, their powerful influence with God. We all have difficulties with one or the other virtue. Why not ask some saint who specialized in that practice, to help you acquire it?
F. Mother Church asks us to think of the saints that we may repair our negligence in celebrating their particular feasts throughout the year. Did you remember your saint on his or her feast day? What is your baptismal name? It is that of some saint in the calendar of the Church. What does that saint or name mean to you? Perhaps you don't even know when your saint's day occurs. Today pray especially to your patron saint.
A. It gives us confidence and hope. The saints had the same trials and difficulties that we have.Yes, this is a day to rejoice and exult, a day to encourage and inspire, a day to renew our determination to follow as closely as we can those who followed Christ so closely.
B. It fans our love and charity. This is a sort of family festival.
C. It increases our devotion to these special friends of God and secures their powerful help.
D. Above all, this feast inspires us to imitate their virtues, their way of life. They acutally show us how it can be done, how it was done.
As the Gospel tells us, we will rejoice and exult in the saints. They have shown us how the rules for following Christ are to be carried out. Watch the saints. Pray to the saints. Follow the saints. Amen.
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Adapted from Prayers, Precepts and Virtues
by Fr. Arthur Tonne, OFM (©1949)
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