Homily

One of the reasons I enjoy traveling to Europe is to see and admire and be inspired by the monuments to our Catholic Faith, and in this regard Spain did not disappoint. For hundreds of years, they had to struggle against Muslim invaders, and then against Protestantism and those struggles added to the wealth of beauty seen in the cathedrals, basilicas, churches, monasteries and monuments of the country. We were there for the Roman rite feast day of All Saints, November 1st, which was on a Friday this year. In Spain, as in some of the other Catholic countries of Europe, All Saints' Day is a national holiday and there is no school that day and many people have the day off from work. Since this holy day fell on a Friday, it gave most people a four-day weekend. We were staying in one of the older neighborhoods in Madrid, and when we went out to eat that Thursday evening before All Saints, the streets were absolutely packed with people who were one way or another going places to celebrate the holiday, including entire families out for a bit of fiesta.

The next morning on the feast we went to the main Mass at the new cathedral in Madrid which is only about 30 years old. The building is very cathedral-like in its basic structure, but some of the major pieces of art inside and outside did not seem to fit in with the building at all, and I wondered why or how they ended up in this church. In a way I think this represented the nature of the Church in Spain: uncertain of what it is supposed to be and to do. Then it was time for Mass--probably only about 60-70 people showed up for the Liturgy--perhaps not so surprising. Regular church attendance is only 21% in Spain, and 50% of the population never go to Mass apart from weddings and funerals.

Let me go back just a little. That Friday morning after seeing all the people out and about the night before, we left our hotel to go to the cathedral about 9:00. There was practically no one out on the main boulevard which was always packed with people. What we did see was rather shocking: bottles and cans of alcoholic drinks littered the sidewalks, along with puddles of vomit and urine--lots of urine. When we got to the Metro stations a few blocks down you couldn't even breathe the air on the stairway down to the train. As we walked through a huge park nearby the cathedral we saw the same empty containers and the same human waste deposits everywhere, even up on the cathedral steps. People came to Cathedral Square the night before, but not to pray.

The faith of the people held up against the Muslims and the Protestants, but it is not holding up against the modern age. St. Paul, 2000 years ago, as we heard today, warned the faithful that we need to be careful because the days are evil, and that we should make the most of our time. We shouldn't be getting drunk, but instead be filled with the Spirit of God, singing to the Lord in our hearts. A great reflection for All Saints' Day in Madrid--what should have been.

But I am not trying to pick on the Spanish. There was All Saints' Day here in the other Catholic Churches of this area, and I highly doubt they had a better attendance at Mass than the Madrid church did. Of course people will say they had to go to work and to school and in the evening they were just too busy to get to Mass. But the end result is exactly the same, is it not? And I am not picking on Roman Catholics here either because we have a holy day on Thursday but you don't have to worry about coming early to find a seat.

Here's a question that comes to my mind: Is it a better situation in Madrid where All Saints' Day is a national holiday and people go out to celebrate even if they do not pray or go to Mass? At least there is some connection to the feast. Or is it a better situation in the USA where people don't use the Feast as a reason to party (and maybe get drunk), but instead they treat the Feast Day as no different than any other day and they also do not pray or go to Mass? Which one is better?

And I have another thought: The great religious buildings that came out of the faith of the people over the many centuries in Spain still stand as beautiful testaments to that faith, even today. They were, for the most part, in the intentions of most people, built not for the glory of the people themselves but rather for the glory and honor of God. They took the materials of creation and reformed them so that the elements of the natural world were recast to point us toward the supernatural world, where Christ is King and Savior and grants His own divine life to those who love the beauty of His house and who rejoice to sing in His presence there.

There are some fantastic buildings in Spain, beautiful high-rise office buildings, and some great government structures. The royal palaces get a good number of visitors, but most people do not come to see those. They want to see the churches, because they want to see beauty that transcends earthly cares, even if they may not fully understand what that means.

And finally I think of Catholics in Spain, and in our own country who are not in the process of building great churches, but instead building more barns for ourselves. There's nothing sinful in building barns unless we are building them to secure our lives in this world and not in the life of Christ; nothing wrong, unless we are building to provide ourselves material comfort so that we do not feel a need for spiritual consolation; unless we build for our own families without a care for those in need, and without a sense that we are deeply connected to the Body of Christ and share in the hope of All Saints; unless we build thinking that material goods are more important than spiritual goods. Such barns are a waste of our time and effort and they will burden our lives with the weight of misplaced values. Even if we are not building churches, whatever we do build, either materially or socially or spiritually, let it be built in the sight of the Lord, to the glory of God and let us give Him thanks that we are able to do it.

There were two very contrasting ways of celebrating All Saints' Day in Madrid. One group of people went for a celebration that only involved the here and now, the temporary satisfaction that can't be sustained for very long and the fruits of that kind of celebration were washed off the sidewalks and into the gutters by noon the next day.

The other group received the Bread of Life and the Chalice of Salvation. In a sense these represent the types of choices that are constantly in front of us, so let us keep on seeking the wisdom of Christ that we may never go to bed having chosen foolishly during the day. Let us always choose His life, because we are wise and faithful servants.