My dear friends, it’s hard to describe what I was feeling. It was a mixture of fear and excitement, for I knew in just a few moments I was going, for the first time in my life, meet the Pope.

And as he made his way gradually, I could see the excitement in the crowd. And I prepared myself for the encounter. I don’t think there was anything I could have done that would have actually prepared me. For as soon as he stood before me, he immediately took my hand and looked deep into my eyes, and all of the fear and excitement simply disappeared, and I had this overwhelming sense of peace. And joy, for I was standing in the presence of someone who was not looking at me but was looking through me, and I knew was praying for me.

You see, that day at Saint Peter’s, I went to meet the Pope, and when I actually met John Paul II, I met a saint.

You see, my friends, we have all had that experience

.We’ve all met those who, through the struggles of life and forged by the grace of Jesus Christ, ever became more holy women and men, and they blessed our lives. Perhaps they raised us, perhaps they taught us, perhaps they coached us, perhaps we worked side by side with them. But we are not, all of us, unacquainted with meeting the saints.

And my friends, today, of all the days of the year, we gather to honor them, those known and those unknown, a throng of women, men, and young people, even children, who allow the Holy Spirit to forge them To mold them into disciples who lived and breathed the love of Christ, who became his instruments in the world. And those saints are at our disposal, for we ask them to pray for us. They are here to inspire us. By their place in heaven, they can encourage us. And you and I would do well to ask their help in this crazy, mixed-up world we live in, because you and I are being forged into saints.

That is what discipleship is. You and I, in the rough and tumble of our lives, in the vocations God has chosen for us— for those who are married, by the partner Christ has chosen for you to walk with you to heaven. All of us— parents, grandparents, children alike— all of us are walking the journey to heaven, and we are walking the journey of heaven with the grace of the Holy Spirit guiding us every single moment of our days and being forged by the fires of the world around us so that we might do what? That we might realize what the Beatitudes from the mouth of our Blessed Lord asks us to do. For if you and I have the courage to do them, we will be forged into holiness of life.

For if you and I seek holiness, then we must seek poverty of spirit, to die to our agenda, our ego, our desires, and allow all that we have to serve the Lord so that he might make us rich. If you wish to be holy, then you and I must seek meekness and mercy of heart So that when we look upon our neighbor and we’re quick to, to challenge them or to look at their sins, we may first recognize our own sins and ask the Lord in his mercy to forgive them before we utter a word.

If you and I wish holiness of life to be counted one day among the saints, then you and I, my friends, must seek purity of heart. Purity, so that all that we have Finds its proper place to honor God, not our desires.

If you and I wish to be holy, then you and I must strive and work mightily, courageously, despite the cost, for justice and righteousness for all God’s children.

And if you and I wish to be holy, we must persevere with the grace that only God can give us, so that those who would quit, we keep going.

And that forging, my friends, occurs everywhere in our lives.

And today we gather with great joy for those of you who are in our midst today, Who are business owners and business leaders, for you are the pioneers to do his work and to allow those entrusted to your care to go into the fires of the forging of becoming saints.

For this process of holiness occurs in our homes, on our ball fields, in our classrooms, in our offices, in our factories, in our minds, climbing a pole to, to establish electrical work. It’s cutting wood. It’s digging ditches. It’s in every moment of every day. It’s in our factories.

It’s in our mechanicals. It’s everywhere, everywhere we go. And so today, for those of you who are making the commitment to consecrate yourselves to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, you are consecrating yourselves again as you were in baptism to seek this holiness of life.

And if you consecrate your companies, then it is to consecrate those places and those individuals entrusted to your care, so that you may not be like those in our world who seek profit at all cost and treat their employees as a means to an end.

But you will create an environment where even if you don’t speak the name of Jesus, he will be present. Respect and dignity given to those entrusted to you, and to ensure that mercy and compassion rules everything you do.

And by doing that, my friends, as we create this guild in honor of Zeli and Louis Martin, who are the parents of Saint Therese. Imagine, father, mother, and daughter saints. That did not happen in my family, but imagine.

Could that be true for all of us? Yes. For all of us. I thank you for making this commitment so that the fires of holiness will find their way where you work and where you lead and in your hearts.

You see, my friends, here in our cathedral we now have depicted John Paul II, for he’s counted among the saints who are known to us. No stranger to suffering, no stranger to turmoil and persecution, A man who was courageous and fearless, a man who at the end of his life suffered mightily from Parkinson’s, who could hardly talk, and yet throughout his life, even with his own sinfulness at times, never stopped allowing the Lord to lead him to heaven.

And please God, on this, the Feast of All Saints, Let us continue to walk with each other on the same journey so that years to come, perhaps known, most likely unknown, when we gather to celebrate this feast— and those who come after us will celebrate this feast for generations to come until the Lord returns in glory— that with God’s mercy You and I will also be numbered among the women, men, and young people honored this day.

My friends, let us walk to heaven together. Amen.