21st Sunday
St. Bartholomew Parish
Blessing of New Parish Cemetery
Manchester, Maryland
August 24, 2025
Introduction
It is a pleasure to return to St. Bartholomew’s Parish for Sunday Mass, and on this occasion, to celebrate your patronal feast – happy feast day! I’m also happy to bless your new parish cemetery and columbarium. Likewise, my visit gives me an opportunity to express my thanks and yours to your good and dedicated pastor, Fr. Colin Poston, and to welcome back your former pastor, Fr. Michael Roach. Let me also thank all of you for your fidelity to the Lord and to the Church and for all the ways in which you share in and support the Church’s mission. Through the intercession of the Apostle, St. Bartholomew, may this wonderful parish continue to grow and flourish in the years ahead.
Scripture Readings and the Blessing of the Cemetery
As it happens, today’s Scripture readings are very appropriate on this day when we bless the new parish cemetery. For they remind us that this world is not our permanent home, that we are passing through as pilgrims, that we will be judged, and that we cannot take our salvation for granted. It also reminds us to pray for those who died that they may attain eternal rest and joy in the Kingdom of Heaven.
As we reflect on our lives, the question of our salvation often comes to the fore. In the Gospel someone in the crowd asked Jesus, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” In response Jesus did not offer percentages or odds. Instead, he told his audience to strive to enter God’s Kingdom “through the narrow door” – a phrase that perhaps does give us much comfort.
Years ago, a priest I know was a passenger on an airplane. The person next to him was a Christian, but not a Catholic. He saw my friend’s Roman collar, understood that he was a Catholic priest, and asked him, “Are you saved?” Not exactly the usual small talk people exchange on a long flight! My priest friend was taken aback but decided his questioner was sincere. So he responded: “Yes, I was saved at my Baptism, I am being saved through the Sacraments that demand my participation, and I hope to be saved when my life is over and I stand before Christ, who will be my judge.”
“I Was Saved at My Baptism”
As you and I know, being saved isn’t just doing enough good things to get into heaven. Nor is it merely one big decision we make at some point in our lives. No, being saved is first of all God, work, God’s initiative. God acts first. So, when you and I were baptized, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit acted in our soul in such a way that we were freed from the guilt of original sin, became the adopted sons and daughters of God, and were grated onto or inserted into the mystical Body of Christ, the Church. In Baptism, we were so closely identified with Christ that the Father could see and love in us what he sees and loves in Christ. So, we can say with my priest-friend, “Yes, I was saved at my Baptism.”
“I Am Being Saved through the Sacraments . . .”
But that’s not the end of the story. As my priest-friend rightly said, “I am being saved through the Sacraments that demand my participation.” In today’s Gospel, Jesus warns that some won’t have the strength to enter by the narrow gate, thus indicating our genuine need for God’s help, the help that we receive in and through the Church’s Sacraments. Ever since the Ascension of Christ into heaven and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Church at Pentecost, we can say with Pope St. Leo the Great that “the visible presence of our Redeemer has passed into the Sacraments.” And so, it is in the Mass and the Sacraments that we encounter the Redeemer and obtain the grace and strength we need truly to live as his disciples, truly to walk the challenging road that leads to salvation. It is precisely in the Sacraments of the Church that we are able to touch and receive the very power flowing from Christ’s Cross and Resurrection.
But, as St. Augustine famously said, “Without God, I can’t. Without me, God won’t.” God doesn’t save me against my will. Indeed, part of our human dignity consists in this, that with God’s grace, not only are we moved towards God, but indeed, we can choose to move ourselves towards God and towards the salvation he desires for us. Thus, the Sacraments, while efficacious in themselves, demand that we open our hearts to the Lord and to his saving power, and in the strength that comes from God, strive to move from the old life of sin to the new life of grace—and thus to eternal salvation. This is the hard work, the discipline, of daily Christian living.
“I Hope To Be Saved When My Life Is Over. . .”
And finally, as my priest-friend said, “I hope to be saved when my life is over and I will stand before Christ who will be my judge.” It is part of our faith that when the course of our lives is completed, each of us will stand before the Lord Jesus who alone is the knower of all hearts, who will judge what we have done and what we have failed to do, who will judge whether we have allowed his grace to transform us so as to have become capable of receiving and returning his love for all eternity.
A Word from Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
So let me leave you with these fitting words of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, and see if they don’t resonate within your hearts. He wrote: “How God will judge my life I know not, but I trust he will see me with mercy and compassion. I am certain there will be only three surprises in heaven. First of all, I think I will see some people whom I never expected to see. Second, I think there will be a number whom I expect who will not be there. And—relying on God’s mercy—the biggest surprise of all may be that I may even be there myself!”
May God bless us and keep us always in his love!