The
feast which we celebrate today is something of an historical accident, it began
as the dedication of a chapel to All Saints in St Peter’s in Rome by Pope Gregory
III in the eighth century, but it gives us a chance to consider saints, what
they are, and what it means to be one. In short there are two things which we
need to know about all the saints: that there are many of them and that they
are all on our side.
Though, at first glance, the example of the
saints and their number can also appear unnerving, even off-putting: when we consider
the example of the saints, of lives lived in unity with God’s will and purpose
we can begin to feel that we humble Christians with our ordinary hum-drum lives
and simple faith cannot live up to the example set by the saints and that
heaven has no place for us.
But on this feast of All Saints, I would
like to begin by considering the saints themselves. Many people, if you were to ask them what
they thought about a Saint would probably reply that they are better than the
rest of us, but they somehow earned their reward amongst the church triumphant,
but this is quite wrong. No one can earn their way into heaven, and the church
has never subscribed to a doctrine of salvation through works. This is not to
say that a Saint is simply a sinner, revised and edited. The lives and examples
of the saints show us the way to Heaven because they reflect the gospel and the
person of Jesus Christ. All of us, in our baptism, receive the grace of God,
his free gift whereby our souls are infused with the theological virtues of
faith, hope, and love. We all of us receive the same grace as all the Saints
Triumphant, we are given, through our baptism all that we need to get to heaven,
through the free gift of God.
We as Christians need to follow the example
of the Queen of the Saints, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and like her say yes to
God, and conform our lives to His will. We have to accept the divine invitation,
cooperate fully with the divine will, and live out our faith in our lives.
It is no surprise then that Jesus begins
his teaching in the Sermon on the Mount with the phrase, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’. To be poor in spirit is to lack a
sense of one’s own importance, it is the exact opposite of feeling
self-satisfied or rejoicing in the fact that we have attained wealth or status
or anything that is seen as important in the eyes of the world. The kingdom of
God, as proclaimed by Jesus turns our human expectations on their head. Thus,
the fact that we do not count ourselves worthy of a place means that we are in fact
worthy of one.
We are used nowadays to a ‘go-getting’
world where you are deemed to have succeeded by a confidence bordering on arrogance,
where all that matters is your own success. Whereas, in the kingdom of heaven
those who are meek, and gentle and kind, those who think about others before
themselves will be rewarded in a way which exceeds their expectations – Jesus’
vision of the world lived in accordance with the will of God does turn our
understanding upside down.
To be poor in
spirit is to be humble, to know that you’re a sinner, that you are no better
than anyone else, and that you need God's love and mercy. It is the exact opposite
of pride, that foundational sin, whereby humanity thinks it knows better than
God, and wants to go its own way. It is not masochism or self-pity, but instead
a recognition of our reliance upon God and God alone. If the way to salvation
is narrow then the door itself is low down, and only through humility may we
stoop to enter. That is why Jesus says this first, because those who are poor
in spirit, those who are humble and know their need of God, can live out lives
in accordance with God's will.
The church has
always been a school for sinners; we will all of us get it wrong, fail
miserably, but hopefully love and forgive one another, and ask God for
forgiveness, remembering that he is loving and merciful. In all this, we can be
sure that the world will not understand us.
We as Christians
have to practice what we preach, and live out our faith in our lives, so that it
can become something infectious (in a good way) and bring about the transformation
of the world we as Christians long for (by the grace of God).
If we are
courageous, kind, and humble, then we can give the world an example to follow, as
opposed to the violence, greed, corruption, and a shallow cult of celebrity,
which seem to characterise our modern world. We can truly offer an alternative,
which shows that we are in the world but not of it, and in which the light of
the Gospel will shine.
Thus when we consider what constitutes
proper behaviour for human beings and how we should live out our faith in our
lives the picture of the saints in heaven becomes a far less off-putting one.
What God requires of us, and what the saints have demonstrated was their willingness
to do what God asks of us, no more and no less.
So let us, on this feast of All Saints, be filled
with courage, ready to conform our lives to God’s will and live out our baptism
and our faith in the world – as this is what we are called to do, and our
reward will be great in heaven.
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