For centuries the first Sunday in November has been marked in the Christian Calendar and lectionary as the All Saints Sunday, and celebrated across the Christian Churches world wide. If a Sunday is catholic, this is it. All Saints Sunday is truly universally celebrated not because we were instructed to celebrate it by the church universal, or by any creed or theology, nor by any papal edict, no, not at all, All Saints Sunday is universally celebrated because although it speaks and celebrates saints of the past, well, it also speaks to our time. You see, we live in a world full of celebrity worship, where money and artificial fame takes the centre stage, the celebration of All Saints day allows us to once in a while distinguish between Saints and celebrities, and I mean the Saints of today, and they are a lot of them. The Church and the world at large are impoverished in our thinking if we hold the honouring of the saints of the past in isolation of that of the present.
Our daily newspaper is full of contemporary celebrities in search of happiness; the bible is full of examples of saints who already attained happiness.
This brings me to one of our readings today, the All Saints Sunday.
In the gospel of Matthew Chapter 5 v 1-12, records one of the most beautiful poems of all time, beautiful as much as spiritual from our master and Lord. Aptly, re-named ‘the beatitudes’ meaning ‘be’ ‘attitudes’, in other words ‘the attitudes that be’ if one is to attain to the level of sainthood. The Lord Jesus Christ is not mixing his words when he declares the one who aspires to be a saint ‘blessed’ These are the descriptions of what it means to be blessed, let us read it once again:
“Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them.
The Beatitudes
He said:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
The whole of the beatitudes are about the conditions of sainthood and if we as a church today aspire so to be then we better take heed the words of our Lord here.
Also, John the apostle records in his epistle, and quite apposite too, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears,[a] we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.” 1 John 3, 1-3
This is a picture of what it means to be a saint, John says we are God’s children now and we ought to behave like one and be a saint in our world
As the generation of young people today immersed themselves totally to the glare of popular culture TV, programmes like the X factor, Come dine with me, and I’m a celebrity come dine with me, and not least among them, the Big brother, one is reminded of the dangers of fame-seeking, popularity-at-all-cost, and the wanton abandonment of ethics and vice in the face of a get rich quick ideology that leads to sadness. The more TV advertisement and programmes pursue these vain and fruitless exercise of build-them-up and break them later for headline tabloids, the more it human frailties than any of us can cover up.
Brothers and Sisters, today, as the All Saints day, Celebrities are no saints, some of them have a 15minute fame and by the next day are forgotten, Saints, which our Lord challenges us to be, not only share our common ideologies, but they live forever in our heart and memory.
Saints are the forgiven in Christ who have left indelible mark and stamp in our world and in our heart. They have live a life of action, and accept the grace of God to enter eternal life. They had a hunger and thirst for righteousness and are ready to give what it was that was dear to them away, that is the only one life they had for the sake of humanity, our Lord Jesus called them blessed.
Let us look at these passages in contrast to Luke chapter 6, where Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, was accused by the Pharisees of disregard to the status quo of the day, the religious observance at the detriment of doing good. Luke chap 6 and I quote:
“ 6 On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shrivelled. 7 The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. 8 But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shrivelled hand, “Get up and stand in front of everyone.” So he got up and stood there.
9 Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?”
10 He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was completely restored. 11 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.”
Later in Chapter 6, Jesus then interposed the “blessedness” and the “woes” it offers us at a glance the difference in realms of both worlds, those who are blessed are the ones who do will of God, and those who by the nature of their bad deeds, self-inflicted curse on themselves. Contrary to what some commentators have said, Jesus did not curse anyone, he merely declared what it was that he who pursues bad deeds had brought upon themselves by the share nature of their deeds. In order words, curse is intrinsic of evil deeds.
Luke in his characteristic manner went into details, which when we think about it offers us some importance to the Matthew recordings, Luke recounts that Jesus had just finished praying and people had been waiting for him, loads of them, the sick, the lame, the almost dead, the blind, mothers and fathers with their sick child on their shoulders, the disguised soldiers, who standing among the crowd with the hope that no one notices him before he receives his own blessing too, and why not? These people were all waiting and at last our Lord came down after prayers and suddenly one can imagine the pushing and shoving and the noise and clamouring, and it is here, in the middle of chaos, and in the middle of the hurly-burly of life that Jesus opened his mouth and professed Blessedness.
Typical! One might say, well you would not be alone. The Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Chief priests and rulers would have thought the same. At least they would have thought that Jesus would reserve the proclamation of Blessedness for the rich and famous, that he would reserve the pronunciation of Blessedness for the Kings and Princes and the rulers in the courts and palaces. Well it would have been a nice change, but this is not the change that Jesus came to bring. Just as God saved the world through who was born, not in palatial surroundings but in a manger, so He who is the prince and the King of Blessedness pronounces the same among the poor in spirit, and among the meek hearted, and among the peaceful lovers.
To be blessed has nothing to do with fame, rich and powerful in the world sense, to be blessed is to be there for the sake of humanity. The prayer of St Francis of Assisi which is now re worded into a hymn springs to mind, Lord; make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
And it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life
Saints are ordinary people who have decided to do extra-ordinary things in the power of our Lord Jesus. Paul says “I can do all things through Him that strengthens me” Phil 4:13
Saints are people who choose not to ignore but to act.
Saints are people, sideline onlookers who are moved to "come down" from their lofty hills and mountains of self to unite with Jesus and move to the centre stage of life where the needs are raw and the realities of life turbulent.
Saints are not born as saints, but born like you and I but then made a choice of life to serve. A life of service, like the pronouncement of Jesus, “Non Ministrari sed Ministrare” in Latin meaning “not to be served but to serve” The saints are those that chose to serve humanity and are thus pronounced blessed by Jesus are able to stay with him in the thick and the hurly-burly of life because that is where Jesus is continually found.
We can recall names of saints like St Paul, St Matthew, St James, St John, St Peter, St Michael St Augustine, Julian of Norwich, Clement of Alexandria, Teresa of Ávila, Martin Luther, C. F. Beyers Naudé, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and others.
But we must not forget the saints of today, even those saints who are still alive and with us, those who are serving with the Lord Jesus today as St Teresa of Avila said, and I quote “Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
So, today, the All saints Sunday, let us now recall to mind and give thanks to our saints of today, and I quote the description of these saints “much closer at hand are the saints of the rank and file of daily life. See them teaching in classrooms of public high schools in our cities. See them in hospital emergency rooms, serving with skill and embracing with compassion someone who has just learned that a spouse of 60 years has died on an operating room table. See them in retirement homes, speaking to the fragile ones who sit, mute and staring, in the wheelchair line in the hallway. See them in high school kids who tutor youngsters or rehab slum houses. See them in auto repair shops where customers receive an honest job at an honest price.”
These are the saints of today who will surely live an indelible mark in the history of humanity and on our hearts. And the next time you and I mean you who are reading or hearing this message picks up a mirror or stand in front of one, see a saint in the face of that forgiven sinner who smiles at you. Go and be that saint.
Amen.
