If you have ever had the opportunity to attend a retreat at the Cedarbrake Retreat Center of the Diocese of Austin, you may recall that on the grounds there is an area for meditation built on a small elevated mound with a few benches positioned around a metal tree that has ornaments hanging on it, each with one of the beatitudes. Undoubtedly it's meant to inspire thoughts of the Sermon on the Mount, which we heard in the gospel reading today.
For several years I have attended October retreats at Cedarbrake, and when time allowed I took the opportunity to pause for a moment or two and consider the meaning of beatitude or blessedness. It's really the blessedness of the life in Christ that we celebrate on All Saints Day. What truly makes a saint is his or her participation in the holiness of God, but I've found that needs to be unpacked a little—as does All Saints Day.
The celebration of All Saints Day has been a part of the Church's worship for a long time. The date of November 1 was officially adopted as a "day of obligation" in the ninth century. However, there were already other culturally important November 1st celebrations in place dating from pre-Christian times. As with other Christian celebrations All Saints Day is situated so that it coincides, and offers an alternative, to the pagan harvest festival. Personally I find it interesting that many non-Catholic Christian communities, and perhaps some Catholic churches and schools, have begun to have a harvest festival in place of celebrating the vigil of "All Hallows", or Halloween, in a Christian context.
Where I'm headed with this has to do with the importance of reclaiming and celebrating true Christian holiness in every situation, time, and place—not just All Saints or the preceding evening. There's no better place to look for the true meaning of holiness in life than the words of the Lord in the Sermon on the Mount—the Beatitudes.
As with many previous years, last week I returned to Cedarbrake for the annual deacon's retreat. While this year I didn't venture out to the Beatitudes mound for prayer and meditation, another kind of beatitude or blessing was definitely on my mind, and I think it fits in perfectly with our celebration and our readings for today.
There were actually two great blessings that became clear to me on my retreat this year. The first, and perhaps the most important to consider on All Saints Day, has to do the degree of our solidarity with the poor and marginal people of the world, which I'll say more about momentarily. The second has to do with the profound reconciliation and grace that we experience—that the whole world experiences—through the God's gift to us of his Son, Jesus Christ.
When we look at the list of those who are called blessed in the Lord's sermon it is not rich, the powerful, and the popular who are named as blessed—rather it is the marginal people of the world. The Lord pronounces that hallowed are the poor, the mournful, the meek and the hungry. It is the poor little ones on the outside who stand to receive the greatest blessing. It is they who are blessed out of their need and capacity to receive. Along with them are the merciful, the pure, the peacemakers, and those who suffer on account of making a stand for just such holiness. In other words, those who somehow stand with God to fill the world's needs are also equally blessed.
Being among the saints, then, is all about receiving a blessing and being a blessing. To be a blessing, and to live as a blessing, that is, to be holy and to live as one destined for heaven means taking upon ourselves qualities that may be foreign to we have previously consider as blessedness.
To be holy we must turn to those who cry out for the mercy of God, stepping into their shoes and their lives. True saints take on meekness and gentleness, a spirit of oneness with the poor and the suffering. Saints understand that the essential feature of humanity remains untouched when all other things are laid bare.
Being a holy one takes a commitment to healing and peace in our world today. True peace is not a mere feeling of well being but it is the cessation of the atrocities of conflict. It is the healing of disease, poverty, hunger, and prejudice. It is the eradication of that which puts us in opposition to others. The true victims of that which is opposed to peace are those who have the least power—most typically it is the children. Being among the saints means acting decisively to bring about change in our world. To be holy requires the courage to be merciful and to understand the hunger and fear of those who are least wanted, least accepted, and least loved.
In a big way All Saints Day is a celebration of the true Christian identity—of our identity as partners in the work of God. All Saints is a celebration that we are indeed among the Communion of Saints, surrounded by great cloud of witnesses, and that we share in common calling and a common mission to be radically for every human being. Especially we are to be for those in the greatest need of God's mercy because God sent his Son to those cried out with the greatest need, to those whose hearts longed for justice.
Perhaps the greatest justice to consider is the gift of God's reconciling power. The gift of reconciliation: it's the gift of healing and hope common to the experience of the sanctified. We gather with one another to hear the words of reconciliation and to recall and participate in the central reconciling event in salvation—the gift and sacrifice of the Son of God. Because Eucharist is the re-presentation and memorial of the sacrifice of the cross, it is the central reconciling event for us. It is the source and summit of lives we are taught.
In our failures in being holy or blessed, whatever those failures may be but especially in our failure to live a life that reflects the Beatitudes, in our failure to live a life of solidarity with the poor of God, we find grace. It isn't only the grace of total forgiveness but the gift of total reconciliation that empowers us to be one with the blessed and to participate in this seasonal celebration of sainthood.
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