My friends, we have arrived at November and our Church calendar calls us to two significant days at the beginning of this month each year. November 1st marks “All Saints Day,” reminding us of those special people who have gone before us, who for the most part, lived exemplary lives, journeying in Jesus’ footsteps. What our Church hierarchy probably doesn’t do as well is, call each of us to the realization that, we too are called to living “saintly” lives, even though most, if not all, will never be officially canonized into this outstanding group. Interestingly enough, one of my sister priests from out east has just published a book entitled, The Cost of Sainthood, wherein she basically says that those who don’t follow the rules aren’t canonized, even though they may have done many wonderful and outstanding things in their lives.

November 2nd calls our attention to “All Souls Day,” a group of all those who have lived, loved hopefully, and gone on before us—a group that we will each, and all, be a part of one day. These folks include our family members and friends, who have shared life with us, for good or ill—shared their faith and values, whom we remember during November each year as we mark the ending of one Church Year with the feast of Jesus, the Christ, our Brother and Friend, (formerly, here, Christ the King) and the coming of Advent, on Sunday, December 1st this year. Our All Are One church Book of Life will be available each Sunday of November to record birth and death dates of family and friends who have died in this last year and who will be part of our prayers throughout the month, along with all those previously listed.
Our Scripture readings today, as always, call us toward being our best selves.

The 1st selection from Deuteronomy lifts up for us to consider the chief prayer always on the lips of the Hebrew-Jewish people, and I paraphrase, “Hear O Israel…you are to love God with all your heart, soul, and strength, and these words [should] be written [on] your heart[s].” Our brother Jesus, in Mark’s gospel today, as a good Jew, repeats God’s command and adds to it—a law that he says, “is no less important, that we love our neighbors as ourselves.” This commandment reminds us of the apostle John’s words in the first of three New Testament letters that he wrote ( 1 John 4:20) questioning how we can say that we love God, whom we cannot see, and not love our neighbors whom we do see.

Jesus goes on today in Mark’s gospel saying that, “no commandments are greater than these” [two]. It is said that St. Paul, who studied under Jewish Scripture scholar, Hillel, learned from him, that after the two great commandments, “all else is commentary.”

The idea of “love of a neighbor,” interestingly enough is deep in the religious and spiritual history of the Israelite people, being that they were a nomadic people in their earlier history, often moving from place to place, with the possibility of being stranded somewhere without shelter, water, or food. For this reason, they had a deep sense of caring for “the stranger” as well as “the guest,” and treating the stranger, who may even be an enemy, as a guest, if that person came to their door, seeking hospitality. So with this understanding, it was right for Jesus to call his people’s attention, along with others, us, to the 2nd of the two great commandments, along with the first.

Another point that is very important for us hearing Moses’ instruction in Deuteronomy today is that we all remember that the commandment to love God with our total being, soul and strength, is written on our “hearts.” We have often talked here about the fact that as Christians, we should make our decisions based more on our “hearts” than our “heads,” because the “heart” is wiser. The heart allows, and pushes us in fact to see the world as more than “black and white,” the heart allows women, for instance, to break the unjust Canon Law 1024 that says ordination is only for men—in effect the heart gives us all, in other situations as well the ability to choose love, always love, when compared to merely following a law. Many of you have heard of the Danube 7 –the beginning of our Roman Catholic Women Priests movement. We learned this weekend that one of the 7, Gisela Forster’s husband, one of the ordaining priests in 2002, has died.

An additional fine-tuning of the Scriptures today, that will help us to ultimately become our best selves, is the admonition to listen—Moses says, “Hear O Israel.” This reminds me of the work of three Roman Catholic Women Priests, who recently finished 3.5 years of diligent work, updating our Constitutions, checking back over nearly 25 years as a movement, to see that our work reflected accurately our original words and that if needed, the words were changed and expanded upon to be more inclusive and loving, going forward, in the memory of our brother, Jesus. After reading the entire updated set of Constitutions, I shared with one of the writers that I was most impressed with their statement again and again throughout the document, that we attempt to minister by first using “sacred listening,” to understand how best to be in our world as Roman Catholic Women Priests.

This “sacred listening” it seems to me, would be a great tool for most of us in our world, in order to better come together on issues that divide us. And it should then lead us toward “acting” in our world just as the writer to the Hebrews today says, “You can’t just hear the Word, but must act” [upon it].

This idea was again something that Jesus could appeal to in his teachings with his people. He and they came out of a history of having made a “covenant” or promise, we would say, with God—God would be there for them as their “rock, fortress, deliverer, and refuge” as the psalmist prayed today, and they would love God in return.

And when Jesus came into existence –he became initially, a “high priest,” saying he would always be there for the people. In time, he would become “the Christ” –a being for all people, as modern theologians, Teilhard de Chardin, and Franciscans, Ilia Delio and Richard Rohr, among others, have described Jesus.
From the beginnings of the sacred journeys of our sisters and brothers in the Jewish faith, on through our brother Jesus, all have instructed that we love God as we know God to be, and attempt to love others to the best of our abilities. When I think on this personally, and especially when it is hard to do, I ask Jesus to help me do what I find hard. Sometimes, trying to see beyond what someone shows by their actions, to what may be driving them from inside helps—maybe it can for you as well. Amen? Amen!