LIGHT UP THE LAMPS! ‘TIS CLOSE OF DAY!: So I dragged myself to church on All Saints’ Day, tired and inattentive. Fidgeted through the Mass, trying but failing to remind myself of the reality of “the Mass as Heaven on earth” that I had recently discovered via Scott Hahn’s Lamb’s Supper. Annoyed by peppy, chatty, way-too-casual priest. Annoyed by myself! Feeling like a big waste of time.

And then we sang the closing hymn, “Sing With All the Saints in Glory.” Somehow a combination of the lyrics and the tune (“Ode to Joy”) really grabbed me. I almost started crying, actually, which is super-weird for me. The song brought home the reality of Revelations, the reality of the glory of Heaven, the way in which this life is both a gift and an arrow toward a higher life that will break in upon us “after earth’s last closing thunders.” Wow. It renewed my longing for Christ’s Second Coming; it renewed my longing for the Mass and the Eucharist; and it made me see again the beauty of the city outside the church. It helped me move from apathy toward my own sins, to repentance.

Here’s Father Tucker’s fine homily on the holy day.