Friends, welcome to Word on Fire, Catholic Ministries. Word on Fire is an apostolate dedicated

to the mission of evangelization, using media both old and new to share the faith on every

continent and to facilitate and encounter with Christ and His Church. The efforts of

Word on Fire engage the culture and bring the transformative power of God's Word where

it is most needed. Today we invite you to join Bishop Robert Baron as he preaches

the gospel and shares the warmth and light of Christ with each of us.

Peace be with you. Friends, a single biggest problem with our great feast day today, the

feast of all saints, is that it can make sanctity seem like something that's the special

preserve of a handful of spiritual heroes and not the ordinary goal of the Christian

life. Let me say that again. The ordinary goal of the Christian life is to be a saint.

The whole purpose of the church then includes priesthood, the mass, sacraments, good preaching,

the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, all of it is to make saints.

One way to think about this is the only people in heaven will be saints. Even in

the law saw that. If you get to heaven, it will be as saint, now put your name after

that title. Only saints are in heaven. That's the whole purpose of the church's life.

León Bluah, the great French spiritual writer, made the magnificent comment, there's only

one real sadness in life, not to be a saint. It's one of those really clarifying statements

isn't it? Because what he implies is that everything else, wealth or its lack, power

or its absence, good reputation or bad reputation, all of that is finally trivial. What finally

matters, what matters only is being holy, which means being the person that God wants

you to be. See, that's what you should think about every day. That's what you should

worry about above all. See, I wonder how many of us actually do think about that? How

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