Saints in the Making: Fraternity as Our Reward
As we honour All Dominican Saints, we’re reminded of the powerful role of fraternal love in our journey to holiness. From St. Dominic’s joy among his brothers to St. Thomas’s humor, their lives reveal that the true reward is the community itself—brothers and sisters who guide us toward heaven.
The following homily was preached during compline. You can watch here or read below:
When we enter the Dominican Order, we suddenly become recipients of a whole bunch of stories about the brethren. Most of these stories are funny stories, some are … let’s say, “cautionary tales”, but many are deeply inspiring accounts of saintly brothers who lived recently or are still among us.
I bring this up because tomorrow we celebrate the Feast of All Dominican Saints, a day to celebrate our communion not only with the saints in heaven – more or less famous – but with all Dominicans on earth who are, by God’s grace, “saints in the making”.
Now, if we look for a common trait shared by these countless Dominican saints, past and present, one feature stands out—a love for fraternal life. It is no coincidence that our Constitutions make community life the very first chapter; it’s the foundation of everything we do.
We see it, for instance, in the two arguably most famous Dominican saints of all time.
Consider our founder, St. Dominic, one of the greatest models of this fraternal love. Bl. Jordan of Saxony wrote that Dominic “dedicated his days to his neighbours and his nights to God”, and that “no one was more cheerful with the brothers” and “since he loved everyone, everyone loved him!”. Bl. Cecilia, another early Dominican, recalled a radiant light shining from Dominic’s forehead, a light that drew people to reverence and love him. “He was always joyful” she said – “except when he was moved to tears by the suffering of others”.
And then there is St. Thomas Aquinas, the pillar of our intellectual tradition. His first biographer, William of Tocco, noted that Thomas “radiated joy to everyone who saw him”. Another writer, Bernard Gui, even called him “Magister Felix”— “happy master”. Apparently, as Fr Torrell suggests, he told jokes during his lectures, adding humour to deep theology.
What is the point of all this love among the brethren? Love is not just a requirement for sainthood, a checkbox on the road to holiness. Love should never be a means to an end, but an end in itself!
As today’s Gospel reminds us, love is already part of our reward. “Whoever has left everything and followed me,” Jesus says, “will receive a hundredfold”. And what is this hundredfold reward? “Brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers…”. The Lord’s promise is that we gain brothers and sisters who care for us, as a mother cares for her child. And to experience that kind of love, we too must strive to be people who love with brotherly affection, fatherly care, motherly tenderness.
Being the reward, the consolation, the support for others—there’s no more beautiful calling. And since we are all “saints in the making”, learning to love like this is not always easy. But the brothers God gives us are, in fact, part of our reward. The bonds of love we create here on earth reflect, and prepare us for, the eternal bonds of love that will one day constitute our happiness in the life to come.
No doubt, these things I have said about Dominican life can be easily applied to any other state of life. So, to all of us are addressed Jesus’s words after the Washing of the Feet: “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them” (John 13:17).
Image: Dominican Saints – by Sr Mary of The Compassion, O.P.
