One of the Jesuits with whom I co-presided at the popular Tuesday night 10pm mass at Marquette University was Fr. Kent Beausoleil who is now a member of the Creighton Jesuit community. Fr. Beausoleil would always greet each student with the salutation “Hello saint.” I jokingly thought that this was a good strategy not to have to remember the names of students. I subsequently learned that Fr. Beausoleil was imitating Fr. Al Bischoff at Xavier University who used to use this salutation to greet everybody.

On a serious note, Fr. Beausoleil’s (and Fr. Bischoff’s) greeting echoes Pope Francis’ reminder to us that each one of us is called to that same holiness that the saints displayed and what they are recognized for as role models. In other words, each of us is called to be a saint. The church places before us the beatitudes in Matthew’s gospel as a path to the holiness that we are called to as disciples of Jesus.

During his visit to Sweden in 2016, Pope Francis in his homily on All Saints Day said that the beatitudes are our identity card and call us as followers of Jesus to confront the anxieties and challenges of our times with the spirit and love of Jesus.

During this homily, Pope Francis added six more beatitudes which he felt had relevance today:

◦ Blessed are those who remain faithful while enduring evils inflicted on them by others, and forgive them from their heart.
◦ Blessed are those who look into the eyes of the abandoned and marginalized, and show them their closeness.
◦ Blessed are those who see God in every person, and strive to make others also discover him.
◦ Blessed are those who protect and care for our common home.
◦ Blessed are those who renounce their own comfort in order to help others.
◦ Blessed are those who pray and work for full communion between Christians.