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 31st,
November 1st, and November 2nd 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.
