ETERNAL COMMUNION WITH GOD

FEAST OF ALL SAINTS OF THE ORDER OF PREACHERS


Lev 19:1-2,17-18; Ps 1:1-4,6; Mt 5:13-16

Vocation to Preach the Word of God

We celebrate together all the brothers and sisters of our Dominican family who have reached the heavenly banquet. Every Christian's vocation is holiness of life. Since God is holiness, the call to be with God is a call to be holy. This is what the reading from Leviticus teaches us. “The Lord spoke to Moses; he said: ‘Speak to the whole community of the sons of Israel and say to them: “Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.”’” Thus, even in the Old Testament, God required the people of Israel to be holy as their God. He set a high ideal for them, not that they could ever be holy as God. But he did so that they may desire the life of holiness. Holiness is never something we can achieve on our own but comes to us in the company of God. The word of God, which carries the divine presence and holiness confers the same on us when we harbour it in our minds, love it with our hearts, and let it condition our wills in all we do.

To confirm that the holiness required of his people results from their housing the word of God, the passage continues. “You must not bear hatred for your brother in your heart. You must openly tell him, your neighbour, of his offence; this way you will not take a sin upon yourself. You must not exact vengeance, nor must bear a grudge against the children of your people. You must love your neighbour as yourself. I am the Lord.” Holiness, thus presented, rests on the Spirit we house, whose promptings and dictates we follow. Hence, the revelation of the word of God makes the people of God. God sends his word to reveal his will to us. By that revelation, we contain God and house his Holy Spirit. Through the same act, we enter the communion of God. A Dominican especially receives the same vocation, for we are called to preach the Gospel. The word of God is central to our vocation, as the truth and life of God. A Dominican who lives not the truth of the Gospel has failed in his vocation, for the greatest means of preaching is our individual and community life. So, the Levitical passage emphasises community because it is our greatest asset as Dominicans and as Christians. We call our community life ‘sacred preaching’ because we are to witness the Gospel to each other in the community before proclaiming it to others by any other means. All who come to a Dominican community are first struck by the communitarian life, with its heavenly character.

Subsequently, a Dominican commences the heavenly life in the community of his brothers or her sisters. With the presence of God established by the word of God, we hear and pray in the liturgy of the hours and in the Eucharistic celebrations, with abundant witnesses of the Gospel surrounding us as brothers or sisters, who model the life of Jesus Christ for us daily; we continuously open our minds and hearts to Jesus Christ. We learn to discern God’s will and to fulfil it in our lives. This transformation gradually makes us light and salt of the earth, as our Lord taught in the Gospel. “You are the salt of the earth. But if salt becomes tasteless, what can make it salty again? It is good for nothing, and can only be thrown out to be trampled underfoot by men.” The community has this taste of salt and works its preservative miracle on each of us if we open our minds and hearts to the presence of God. The community is lit with the Gospel light. Thus, the community easily rekindles our individual lights when they go out in the darkness. “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill-top cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp to put it under a tub; they put it on the lamp-stand where it shines for everyone in the house.” We celebrate many brothers and sisters whose light shone through their lives on earth. In the community of their brothers and sisters, God planted them, as he planted us, beside a running stream; they grew and blossomed, bearing plenty of fruit, thirty-fold, sixty-fold, hundredfold, to the glory of God. May their prayers help us to house the word of God and become salt and light of the world.

Let us pray: Almighty and eternal God, who by glorifying the Saints, bestow on us fresh proofs of your love, graciously grant that, commended by their intercession and spurred on by their example, we may be faithful in imitating your Only Begotten Son. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. 

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