SIGNED, SEALED AND DELIVERED

The title of my homily for this feast of All Saints is, "Signed, Sealed and Delivered."

In the first sentence in today's first reading from the Book of Revelation 7:2, I noticed the word "seal" - as in "the seal of the living God." Then at the end of that first section it says, I heard the number of those who had been marked with the seal, one hundred and forty-four thousand marked from every tribe of the children of Israel."

How many people down through the centuries wondered and worried, "Am I going to make it? Am I going to be part of the 144,000? O my God, by now all those spots have to have been signed, sealed and you have delivered."

How many people have felt the words in the song, "When the Saints Come Marching In, I want to be in their number / When the Saints come marching in?"

Relax a bit. Today's first reading, then moves away from numbers and says, "After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people and tongue."

Phew. Okay God. I want to be part of THAT great multitude. Please God, please. Pretty please.

SIGNED AND SEALED

Here's Christianity using something everyone would know about: a seal.

Food has to get some kind of seal of approval. So too property contracts. So too marriage licenses. So too birth certificates and baptismal certificates.

How many of us have sat on a doctor's waiting room table - with the clean white paper under us - like in a delicatessen - ready for cold cuts - and it

can be cold on our butts - and we wonder - if this doctor is going to know  what she or he is doing? We look up on the wall and there are all those certificates screaming at us, "Not to worry."

"Not to worry."

But down deep, there is that worry. The clock is ticking. Wrinkles are appearing. Birthdays have come and gone, over and over and over again.

We've passed our death day on the calendar over and over again as well: the reality being - we don't know the day nor the hour.

Seals go way back before signatures - before many could write.

That tells me this stuff about seals, signatures and signs of approval are very down deep basic and important to all of us.

If you've ever been to a museum that has those deck of cards sized ancient stones - inside glass cases - stones from way back B.C. - you read the little inscriptions below them to know what they are. Some of them are sealing stones - certificate stones - with drawings etched into them. It could be a beetle or a lion or what have you.

Stones last - as in cemetery head stones or diamonds - so too seal stones. There is a knock on the door. There's a UPS guy from the year 500 B.C. He shows his stone. He's delivering a message. It's telling the recipient of a letter or package delivered - this is from the king or some leader - or some important person or relative. The seal guarantees what you're getting is what you're getting.

To be human is to want approval - certification - signification - sealed.

It could be a driver's license, a passport. Here look at my papers.

Besides genocide, to me one of the worst crimes committed during the 1992 -1995 Bosnia-Herzegovina wars was the burning down of buildings that contained birth certificates etc. etc. etc.

All those people migrating and emigrating out of Syria and a host of other Middle East and African countries bring money and precious papers.

I like to say to couples getting married or getting a baby baptized, I hope you have a fire proof box of safe - to keep safe your precious papers.

HALLOWEEN AND ALL HALLOWS AND ALL SOULS DAY

Hallowed means "holy" as in Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name...."

Yesterday, today and tomorrow - October 31^st, November 1^st, and November 2^nd  are special days: Halloween which means “All Hallows Eve’, All Saints Day today and All Souls day - tomorrow -  we're looking at big time stuff.

We all have our demons, our possible self-destructive tendencies, our ghouls and our goblins, as well as our inner calls to be good - to be saints.

And then November 2nd, All Souls Day tells us, there are time limits.

It's fascinating how big Halloween has become - up there contesting to be a top holiday - along with Thanksgiving, Christmas and Valentine's Day.

Holiday - there's another old word - that has our faith in it - faith that can be lost....

Halloween....

Great marketing.... Great moneymaker ....

Even before Halloween and its costumes and its parties I always thought Christian religious speakers and preachers were nuts to poo poo Halloween. Hey it came from Christianity. It means the night before All Saints Day.

With a smile on our faces - it's simply acknowledging that we are devils at times. It's also advertising and preaching - we're called to be hallowed - not hollow - saints not sinners.

DEATH

Then as those Halloween costumes of skeletons yell to us - death is coming folks.

Don't forget the grave. Don't forget into dust we shall return -and all that will be left is our skeletons.

I'm assuming cremation - becoming practical, cheaper, smarter - is going to take away some of the sting a skeleton announces. All that is left with cremation are those ashes in a cheaper than a casket urn.

The Church continues to try to enter into the play of these life realities. They ask that we do all this with faith and deep respect of the human body - and a person's life.

The Church - better Christ - announces - that there is life after death. That's the great act of faith, folks.

That's the great act of hope, folks.

That's the great act of charity, folks.

Christ said the Father is a Father of Unconditional Love and Forgiveness.

But let's be honest, we all go through life not really believing that - including us priests and our preaching - because we too are in the human mix -obviously.

We think we'll have a better chance to make it into eternal life - heaven - if we lead a good life - if we've been a saint with a small s - and like one of the Saints with a capital S.

CONCLUSION

As I thought about the image of the Seal - on our forehead - it struck me that’s where we start the sign of the cross - especially with holy water as we come into Church - reminding us of our baptism - and also the sealing with oil on our forehead in baptism and confirmation.

And as I thought about the image of the Seal - or being sealed - on the forehead -  it hit me loud and clear about something I do all the time as priest.

We priests are called to seal the forehead and the hands of a dying person - the sacrament has been opened up for people about to be operated on -or who are facing serious sickness - and hopefully the words help the sick person as the prayer of the Sacrament of Anointing actually puts it.

It hit me that's exactly what's going on here. Someone is receiving a sign, a seal, and they go into death or an operation with the hope of a safe delivery here - the ultimate - like a baby coming out of the dark womb - into the light of life - or a sick person going into dark death - and the tomb - hopefully to have a safe delivery and they wake up in the eternal light -because they have been signed and sealed - approved by Jesus for a new birth to eternal life.

Amen.