Word to the Wise
Saturday, November 1, 2008 - All Saints Day
[Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14; 1 John 3:1-3; Matthew 5:1-12A]"Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?" I said to him, "My lord, you are the one who knows." He said to me, "These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb."
The vivid imagery of the Book of Revelation is addressed to a church that was under considerable persecution! The vision is meant to encourage those who were undergoing great trials at the time the book was being written. In those times, we do need models of courage and heroism that goes beyond anything we would ordinarily expect to do - martyrdom! We know that martyrdom is still a possibility, as our brothers and sisters in India and the Middle East are experiencing. But the feast of All Saints challenges us to consider all the different kinds of saints - and not just those who have been "raised to the altar." They have not all met a violent death! Some of them would be strange by the standards of any age and may have hastened their own demise by the austerities they practiced. Others were people whose personal holiness became known because of the position they filled (Pope John XXIII) or the media attention given to their ministry (Mother Teresa of Calcutta - others do the same kind of work but have not received the publicity that she did). Still others sought simply to bring their faith to bear on the simple everyday tasks of life. In short, there's room in the category of "saint" for just about every kind of faithful person. From all that I have learned about saints, one thing seems to remain clear. It is never "easy" to be a holy person - as if God somehow removes a saint from what ordinary people experience! On the contrary, no matter what time we live in or what our age or social situation may be, personal holiness is a matter of taking faith and love and a relationship with God very seriously and living as if this relationship is the most important thing in this life This does not exclude the humorous and joyful at all, lest we think holiness is a somber, "puritanical," way of being. By virtue of our baptism, we are invited to be, as the second scripture today says, "children of God." Given the chance anyone can be a hero! Sainthood is a lifetime thing. AMEN
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