A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Matthew. When our lord saw the crowds, he went up on the mountainside. And after he had sat down, his disciples gathered around him. Then Jesus began to teach them. How blessed are the poor in spirit?
The reign of god is theirs. Blessed too are the sorrowing. They shall be consoled. Blessed are the lowly. They shall inherit the land.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for holiness. They shall have their fill. Blessed are they who show mercy, for mercy shall be theirs. Blessed are the single hearted, for they shall see God. Blessed too, the peacemakers, They shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those persecuted for the sake of holiness. The reign of God belongs to them. Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of slander against you because of me. Be glad and rejoice for your reward in heaven is great. And this is the gospel of the lord.
In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. Notice what our blessed lord said, and this is his promise and that is exclusively his promise. Your reward will be great where? Here on earth?
No. Your reward will be great in heaven. And that's the reason today we wish each other a happy feast day. This is our feast day. Because if we cannot be numbered among the saints, we are lost for eternity.
It's that simple. Today you hear a great deal about community. I mean, in in in ecclesiastical writings, and much of it could be applied to any congregation of the Kiwanis or the Rotarians. There's nothing very special about having a community or a society or a collectivity of human beings. Nothing very special about that.
What's important is the mystical body of Jesus Christ. That's the Christian community, not the congregation sitting in this pew in these pews. And today, this is the world we should make vividly real to ourselves because if this is a myth, let's get out of this church and forget it. Because as one of the someone said, we are the worst and the most deceived of men. Because of this promise of Christ guaranteeing us immortality if we keep his law, If that is not for sure, we are indeed to be pitied, because we will be the most deceived of men.
But we have the faith, we have the confidence, we have the security that down two thousand years have led men and women to Jesus Christ on the cross. To his peace and to his invitation, Come to me, all you who labor. Come to me and help me carry my cross. You'll have yours. And if you carry it with me, your cross will be sweet, and you will find it light, and your reward is great in heaven.
Keep that. Today we are assembled. Let us let us let our minds and imagination be Catholic. We are talking about the church militant. We are the soldiers in the battle right here.
We are talking about the church triumphant, the saints who have made it. And we are talking about the church suffering, the saints who have made it, but are in a process of purification. And this is the doctrine of the holy Roman Catholic church. Some so called theologians to the contrary notwithstanding, that there is a hell, there is a heaven, and that there is a purgatory. And that's our community.
There it's the company we keep. They are the heroes and their heroines who have followed the lamb straight up the Hill Of Calvary. And that's where we belong. And that's our dearly beloved associates. We are not alone.
We are in the company of saints. Now for real, and for the future even more actual. And so today, it is most fitting that we recall the members of this parish or associated with the parish in one way or another, that we recall these associates of ours. These men and women who were in the battle with us and now have gone to their reward. And I shall now give the names of those that have been given to us to be recalled with love and affection, with gratitude, and with admiration, and with the hope that as we remember them, they will not forget us who are still in the trenches.
We have Monsignor Robert E. Lewis, Catherine Burns, Mark Sherman, Major General Ralph Richards, Mrs. Josephine Gato, the mother of our pastor, Elena Chiara, Anna Damuruk, Marion Wallace, Jordan Reynolds, Elizabeth Ward, Robert Davison, Maria Long, Fred de Giorolimo, Regina B George, Robert E Doyle Sr, Clara Marotta, Marie Lynch, Joseph McLaughlin, Harry Corsetti, Francis Brady, Anne McNerney, Ralph Barry, Bernadette Wood, Frank Foster, Edward Burns. God our father, in your saints, we see reflected the glory of your love. Hear our prayers today and remold our world in the image of your original creation.
We ask this through Christ our lord. Amen. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen.