We Christians, particularly Anglicans and Roman Catholics, start our November with two feasts, All Saints and All Souls. All Saints’ Day is about holy men and women in our Christian tradition whereas All Souls’ Day is about faithful men and women whose lives had a huge impact on us, those with whom we had a personal relationship.
One common fact about these two feasts is that both all saints and all souls are no longer alive. They’re dead. From a secular perspective, these two feasts may be considered as something like Memorial Day on which we commemorate and remember those who died in active military service. Like how people observe Memorial Day in general, the feast of All Souls can be celebrated as the day of remembrance of our family members who are no longer physically with us. This, however, is not the reason why we celebrate these feasts. Both feasts are not about death, but about life in God whose love goes beyond mortality. St. Paul says so eloquently, “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rm. 8.38-39) On the feast of All Saints, we celebrate the communion in which we are united with “the glorious company of apostles, the noble fellowship of prophets, and the white-robed army of martyrs.” (BCP p. 95) We commune together not only metaphorically, but sacramentally in the Eucharist. Christ unites us with all the saints. On the feast of All Souls, we are consoled by Christ’s love and hope of resurrection in which we are never set apart from family members and friends who fell asleep in Christ, who are now in a different mode of being in Christ. We are in communion with them through Christ. This idea, this sacramental reality of being in communion with saints and those who have gone before us is quite comforting and consoling to us. At the same time, it is not just limited to this pastoral and psychological benefit of these feasts. When we say we are in communion with saints, it means we are standing on the same ground where saints are. It means we place ourselves in the context where saints would be in our lives here and now. Being in communion with them challenges us to be in places where we usually don’t want to be. And today’s gospel reading can be to us a “spiritual road map” that guides us where we can be in communion with saints and of course with Christ. The gospel reading today is selected for the feast of All Saints. It’s the infamous Beatitudes, in which Jesus talks about the eight blessings in St. Matthew’s version. Let’s read them together again. These eight blessings start with poverty, mourning, meekness, hunger and thirst for righteousness, mercy, purity, peace, and persecution for righteousness’ sake. If I’m to preach some kind of prosperity gospel, today’s gospel reading should never be chosen. Let’s admit it. Who wants to be poor in spirit? Who wants to mourn? Who wants to be meek in the society where one has to constantly prove one’s value, usefulness and worth? Who wants to hunger and thirst for justice when it brings so many risks to one’s life? Who is really pure in heart? Who wants to get messy with conflicts to bring peace? And lastly, who wants to be persecuted for righteousness’ sake? The Beatitudes talk about the blessings, but these blessings are countercultural. It’s not the kind of blessing that our world promotes. The Beatitudes are full of paradoxes which turn the values of the world upside down. In this midst of the Beatitudes stand the feast of All Saints. The Beatitudes become a spiritual road map for Christians to be and stand where saints are. Taking the wise advice of St. Teresa of Avila who once said, “...the actions of the saints are only to be admired, not imitated, by us sinners,” we can still be near the saints! We might not be able to imitate, for example, St. Francis of Assisi’s radical detachment from all material things, but we can still admire and be close to him. We can be close to those who are poor. We can be around those who mourn. We can hang out with the meek. We can pay attention to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, those who fight for justice. We can be happily influenced by those pure in heart. We can find ourselves getting into a conflict where we meet peacemakers. We can witness those who are being persecuted for righteousness’ sake. The very first step of being in communion with saints is not only recognizing our communion with them in the Eucharist but also placing ourselves in the context where saints would be found, where Christ happens, particularly in local communities. Where are the poor, the mourners, the meek, the hungry and thirsty for justice, peacemakers, or the persecuted in your neighborhood? We are not going there because we are so saintly and godly, but because we are in communion with the saints and Christ who are already there. The former Bishop of Rome, Pope Benedict XVI says something that is very true about the Beatitudes. He says, “...the Beatitudes present a sort of veiled interior biography of Jesus, a kind of portrait of his figure He who has no place to lay his head is truly poor; he who can say, ‘Come to me...for I am meek and lowly in heart’ is truly meek; he is the one who is pure of heart and so unceasingly beholds God. He is the peacemaker, he is the one who suffers for God’s sake. The Beatitudes display the mystery of Christ himself, and they call us into communion with him.” (Joseph Ratzinger, Jesus of Nazareth, p. 74) For us to encounter the mystery of Christ, we are constantly called to the places of poverty, suffering, conflicts, and injustice. We tend to idolize saints as if they were completely different from us, as if they had their halo all the time. That’s not true. Saints are the ones who found their call to service in the crucified people. Saints used the Beatitudes as their spiritual road map to find the crucified Jesus in the lives of the crucified people. And today, we are once again called to use the same spiritual road map to be where saints are, to be where the crucified people are, and to encounter the crucified and risen Christ. Tragic incidents are everywhere, especially in our country. 59 innocent people were shot to death in Las Vegas, and most recently, 8 people were killed in New York City. The world is filled with anxiety and fear, which leads to violence and hate and produces suffering and pain. Most of us probably might not want to deal with this whole situation that is going on in our world. Yet, for us Christians, this is the time to live out the Beatitudes. This is the time to be among the blessed to whom Jesus refers in today’s gospel reading. This is the time that we feel and experience our communion with all the saints and souls. I pray that may God open our eyes to see the crucified people as well as our ears to hear their mourning. Not only do we place ourselves with them but also witness the work of Christ who resurrects all of our lives. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. |
Paul"...life up your love to that cloud [of unknowing]...let God draw your love up to that cloud...through the help of his grace, to forget every other thing." Archives
January 2025
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