Word to the Wise
Wednesday, November 1, 2023 - Nov. 1 - All Saints
[Rev 7:2-4, 9-14; 1 John 3:1-3; Matt 5:1-12a]See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are..... Beloved, we are God's children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure. [1 John]
There are two stories I like to tell on All Saints Day because they capture the meaning of the day. The first is the school child who, when asked by the pastor if he or she would like to become a saint, said NO!. When the pastor asked why, the child answered, "Cuz they're all DEAD!" The second story comes from the movie THE PRIVATE WAR OF MAJOR BENSON in which Charleton Heston plays a military man in trouble with his superiors who send him to be ROTC director at a boys' military school run by nuns! The superior is showing him around the place and they pause in front of a large painting of a stern cleric in full finery. Heston asks, "Who is that?" The superior replies, "That is our holy founder. He was canonized last year." Heston replies, "Oh, I'm so sorry!!" One does not have to be dead or canonized to be a saint, or even recognized by others.
The First Letter of John, from which today's second scripture comes, puts it clearly, "We are all God's children NOW." In the Gospel According to John, Jesus repeatedly says that the one who believes in him HAS eternal life. Oscar Wilde, hardly recognized as a saint, is quoted as saying, "Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future." By virtue of our baptism, we are united with the communion of saints, canonized or not, who have gone before us. The great English spiritual writer, Evelyn Underhill once wrote: "Real saints never know how much they are doing. What they are doing is continuing the work of incarnation through the perfect self-yielding of the soul to God, making themselves His tools, His channels of revelation to others." This is the challenge offered to us on All Saints Day - to be incarnate witnesses to God's love and truly be children of God. Whatever may be our past, this can always be our present and future if we live as Christ has taught us to live. AMEN
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