ALL SAINTS
1 NOVEMBER 2015
When
Jesus chooses eight different groups of people to be called “blessed,” or
“happy,” or “holy,” we might scratch our heads.
What are you telling us, Lord? In
order to be truly holy, do we have to be dirt poor, or go around with sorrowful
faces all the time, or allow bullies to kick us around, or make ourselves so
obnoxious that other people will automatically hate us? Is that what constitutes true holiness?
The answer,
of course, is NO! The world already has
too many grumpy, obnoxious people!
Instead, we need to look at the beatitudes from the perspective of the
second reading. Saint John says that God
is love. Four of the eight beatitudes reflect
God’s love. If we hunger and thirst for
righteousness, we imitate the right judgment of God and behave according to
God’s will. If we are merciful, we
mirror the great mercy of God that will be the theme of the coming Year of
Mercy. If we are clean of heart, we have
a single-minded focus on Jesus and his teachings that reveal God’s face to us. If we act as peacemakers, we radiate the
peace that comes from God’s abiding presence in our lives. Because the essence of love is to seek the
good of the other, living these four beatitudes will free us to love others as
God has loved us. We are truly blessed. We know authentic happiness and holiness.
The other
four beatitudes warn of dangers that distract us from the love of God. If we are addicted to material goods, we will
give all our attention to those things that ultimately cannot last. If we are addicted to pleasure, we will do
whatever we can to protect ourselves from the pain and sorrow that are part of
life. If we are addicted to power, we
will never learn how to depend on God’s providence. If we are addicted to honor, we will not have
the courage to speak the truth, especially when it makes us unpopular. If we find ourselves making ends of any of
these means, then we will be less likely to love others as God has loved us.
Saint John
tells us that we have become children of God through the waters of Baptism, allowing
the grace of the Sacrament to guide us in living the Gospel beatitudes. The Book of Revelation gives us an image of
what we shall be. Because the essence of
heaven is beyond our human experience, Saint John uses symbolic language to convey
what heaven is like. To give a sense of
how many people are saved, he comes up with the symbolic number 144,000, using
12 squared to speak of the 12 tribes of Israel and the Church built on the
foundation of the 12 Apostles. The
number 1,000 symbolizes perfection.
Clothed in the robes of salvation made white through the Blood of the
Lamb, this immense throng comes from every nation, race, people, and
tongue. And the best thing of all is
that they are interceding for us. They
know from their own experience that they have failed in living the
beatitudes. They know from their own
experience that they needed God’s mercy.
Most importantly, they know from their own experience how difficult it
is to share in Christ’s dying in order to share in his rising.
Becoming a
saint is not reserved for those who are spiritual giants or for those whom the
Church officially recognizes as saints by canonizing them. We celebrate their feast days throughout the
Liturgical Year. Today, we remember all
those people who have learned to embrace the middle four of the beatitudes, and
who have learned to see the dangers of being addicted to material goods, or pleasure,
or power, or honor. We know them,
because they have been members of our families and loved ones. Having fully died in the Lord, they want us
to join them and to trust that our sharing in the fullness of the Lord’s dying
will not destroy us. We are God’s
children now. Even if the world does not
always know us, God knows what we can be.
We can be saints! There is a
great crowd cheering us on!
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