So, would you vote for a candidate whose vision was a way of life based on the Beatitudes?

 

 

ALL SAINTS DAY   2020

 

Today is All Saints’ Day.  Tomorrow is All Souls Day. And Tuesday is Election Day.

In the last few weeks, we have been bombarded by our political candidates highlighting the issues and the qualities you should consider in who to vote for. 

AS we reflect on the Beatitudes in today’s Gospel for All Saints’ Day, I’m left wondering what are the qualities and the issues that we find in the lives of the saints.

If you were to become a political candidate and at one and the same time you aspire to be a saint. are the qualities we find in the saints the same as the qualities we look for in a political candidate.

So, how would you describe a saint?  Saints are friends of Jesus.  They have invited Jesus into their lives.    Saints are people who are aware of God’s great love for them and are witnesses of the love of Jesus in the world. 

In the context of today’s feast, the beatitudes in today’s Gospel tells us: this is how you become a saint.

 As we mark this All Saints Day, it is tempting to put saints, literally, on a pedestal.  We see saints in stained glass, in wood, in marble. They are plaster figures we put on a shelf and decorate with flowers or adorn with halos.  We collect them in holy cards and venerate them in icons.

But to think of the saints that way reduces them to something merely decorative—and risks making this feast seem unnecessary.

I invite you compare a saint to a political candidate.  Just as political candidates have to convince you they connect with you in the way you live your life and how they will improve your quality of life, so too, saints are people whose  lives are like you and I with all our strengths and our weaknesses.

The blessedness of the saints is the blessedness of the beatitudes and the blessedness of the beatitudes is an inner blessedness, an inner joy that comes from trusting and rejoicing and being grateful for God’s unending love for us.

I invite you  to reflect on two of the beatitudes.

  Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are the poor in spirit…The poor in spirit are those who know they stand in need of God’s redeeming love.  Our wealth doesn’t come from are material assets; our real wealth comes from God’s healing love for us.  To tap into God’s unending love for us, we need first to recognize our need for God’s grace.  This is to say we need to recognize our poverty of spirit which moves us to find an inner blessedness that is God’s gift to us.  Blessed are those who have to rely on God for every breath they take.

The greatest spiritual deception of all is thinking we are self-righteous; that our spiritual will power is the source of our holiness.  That is the biggest illusion of all.  The spiritual life begins with our need for God.  Left to ourselves, we are poor; we stand in need.  The grace of this situation is that it can lead us to trust not in ourselves, but to trust in God.

And so, the beatitude, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.

In preparing for the day that I was ordained a priest, I had 12 years of seminary formation – four years of high school, four years of college, and four years of theology.  I spent a lot of time in the classroom. 

When I think of the seminary formation of the first apostles, Jesus enrolled them in the school of mercy.  The disciples of Jesus found themselves in a continual classroom for learning how to be merciful.  They listened to Jesus preach about forgiveness.  They watched as Jesus healed the sick, expelled demons and forgave sinners.

 Yet the deepest lessons for the disciples occurred when they themselves went through a heartbreaking baptism of mercy.  The Gospels tell of the disciples’ constant failure to understand Jesus and his mission.  They think they are on the way to power and greatness.  They are dismayed when Jesus predicts his suffering and rejection in Jerusalem. 

The whole story reveals that the disciples had to experience their own need for mercy so that they would be prepared to preach it to others.  For example, Peter, the leader, undergoes a profound failure, denying any relation with Jesus in his hour of need. 

St. Paul, like St. Peter, is prepared for his mission as Apostle to the Gentiles by his own wrenching experience of failure and conversion.  Again, it might seem strange that God would choose an enemy of the church to be its greatest evangelist, until we realize that Paul’s conversion was essential to his ministry.

The baptism of mercy of Peter and Paul was to recognize that left to their own devices, they were on a sinking ship.  Conversion happened when they made the leap of faith in trusting in God for every breath they took.

The parables of Jesus are stories of mercy.   The Parable of the Prodigal Son identifies the deepest obstacle to mercy.  Those who feel they have never received mercy themselves find it hardest to let God give it to others.  This can be seen in the behavior of the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son.  He wasn’t able to celebrate with his younger brother because he was not aware of the father’s merciful love for him.

Mercy comes from mercy.  Our mercy to each other comes from God’s mercy to us.

What about ourselves?   What about our Church?  How aware are we that we are the generous recipients of God’s merciful love?  Are there ways we are reluctant to share the merciful love of Jesus with others?

  You can be sure if we are reluctant to be a Church of mercy, a Church extravagant in witnessing to God’s unconditional for one and all, we ourselves need to go back to the first beatitude.  Blessed are the poor in spirit.  Out of our poverty, out of our brokenness of spirit, may we experience the conversion of relying more fully on God’s grace.   Blessed are they who rely on God for every breath they take.

All Saints Day beckons us to something beautiful.  It reminds us of our great potential—the promise that lies within each of us. The promise of holiness.

It is the promise that was fulfilled in the countless people we venerate this day—our models, our companions, our inspirations, our guides. All the saints. They give us blessed hope.

So, would you vote for a candidate who sought to live the Beatitudes way of life:  Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.

Have a Blessed Day.