Sunday we celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints -- a day
devoted to those who have been beatified,
that is, determined to be in heavenly
bliss with the Lord, and then canonized,
placed in the Church's calendar of saints.So perhaps it is not surprising that our Gospel reading from Matthew
focuses on the beatitudes, that
declaration of blessedness that we hear about in the Sermon on the Mount, a state of
blessedness for which we strive our entire life long.But how do we get there?Most notably, it is though our ongoing
struggle, ever moving through death to life in Christ, and through our efforts
to enter ever more deeply into that relationship that ultimately leads to
perfect union.
As Psalm 24 reminds us, we too long to see God's face,
and that very longing is itself a means of transformation.Opening ourselves to the struggle that is
life and finding meaning in it, we strive to be sinless, with clean hearts, allowing
God to dwell in us in relationship, living, as 1 John states, in that love that the Father bestows on us, as children
of God, looking forward to seeing the
Lord as he is, revealed in all his
glory, united to us in perfect union.
The lives of the saints demonstrate that Christ was indeed
revealed in them. The Book of Revelation
tells us that they have survived the time
of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the
blood of the Lamb. Thus, marked with God's seal, the saints are now in perfect union with God, that union
which is our goal, blessed, in that state of beatitude that causes us to rejoice
and be glad -- because Christ is revealed, not only on the Mount, that space of biblical transformation, but in us as
well. So, enter in, accept the challenge
of living the beatitudes, and open to the transformation that is ours as we
live -- one in the communion of saints -- to reveal Christ to our world!
Holy desires are different than surface
wants, like, I want a new car or I
want a new computer… I'm talking about
our deepest desires, the ones that shape our lives: desires that help us to know who we are to
become and what we are to do. Our deep
desires help us to know God's desires for us, and how much God desires to be
with us. And God, I believe, encourages
us to notice and name these desires, in the same way that Jesus
encouraged Bartimaeus to articulate his desire. Recognizing our desires means recognizing God's desires for us.
--Fr. James Martin, The
Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything
We usually associate the prophet Jeremiah with dire warnings
about the breaking of covenant, and indeed the Book of Jeremiah is full of
oracles about exile and the fall of Jerusalem.Yet in the midst of all this we also find oracles about the eventual
restoration of Israel and Judah.And
when that restoration comes, God promises to take care of the most vulnerable
first:I will gather them from the ends of the world, with the blind and lame
in their midst, the mothers and those with child.Those who have suffered most will be led to brooks of water on a level road;
God will restore them to life.It is
this restoration -- and the amazement that it caused -- that is celebrated in
Psalm 126:When the Lord brought back the captives of Zion, our mouth was filled
with laughter and our tongue with rejoicing.Their faith has resulted in restoration to
prosperity and joy.
In Mark's Gospel, the disciples have not exactly
demonstrated that they understand God's plan in sending Jesus, the high priest described in Hebrews, to
become a sacrifice for the salvation -- the restoration -- of all.But the blind beggar Bartimaeus does:sitting humbly in a crowd that Jesus is passing through, Bartimaeus
calls upon the Lord to help him:Son of David, have pity on me!Throwing away his cloak -- his most
significant possession and very likely his home -- is an extraordinary act of
faith:faith that Jesus can work his
powers of restoration for him, in him.When he does, Bartimaeus immediately becomes a follower, a
disciple.But notice that he believes
before his vision is restored:physical
sight will make it easier for Bartimaeus to follow the Lord, but spiritual sight
has been his all along.His faith has
led the vulnerable Bartimaeus to rely upon and follow the Lord.
In 1942, my grandmother brought home twins: my mother, and her fraternal twin brother, who had Down Syndrome and who lived at home, first with my grandparents and then with my family, until his death at age 44. I have often thought that perhaps no parent can imagine a cup more difficult to drink than to welcome a special needs child home, knowing the challenges that child will face throughout his or her life, often even beyond the lifespan of the parents. Musician Natalie Merchant takes on this topic in her song Wonder, where the voice of the child herself reassures her parents that God is at work, particularly when there is no other explanation to articulate:
Doctors have come from distant cities just to see me,
Stand over my bed disbelieving what they're seeing.
They say I must be one of the wonders of God's own creation
And they smile as they see they can offer no explanation.
I think there is no suffering greater than what
is caused by the doubts of those who want to believe.I know what torment this is, but I can only
see it, in myself anyway, as the process by which faith is deepened.A faith that just accepts is a child’s faith
and all right for children, but eventually you have to grow religiously as
every other way, though some never do.
What people don’t realize is how much religion
costs.They think faith is a big
electric blanket, when of course it is the cross. It is much harder to believe
than not to believe.If you feel you
can’t believe, you must at least do this:keep an open mind.Keep it open
toward faith, keep wanting it, keep asking for it, and leave the rest to God.
--Flannery
O’Connor, The Habit of Being:Letters of Flannery O’Connor
The Christian doctrine
of suffering explains, I believe, a very curious fact about the world we live
in. The settled happiness and security
which we all desire, God withholds from us by the very nature of the
world: but joy, pleasure, and merriment,
He has scattered broadcast. We are never
safe, but we have plenty of fun, and some ecstasy. It is not hard to see why. The security we crave would teach us to rest
our hearts in this world and oppose any obstacles to our return to God: a few moments of happy love, a landscape, a
symphony, a merry meeting with our friends, a bathe or a football match, have no such tendency. Our Father refreshes us on the journey with
some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.
Can we enter into the depth of Christ's suffering?
We are constantly reminded that Jesus suffered and died for
us on the cross.The prophet Isaiah
predicted as much when, in the fourth Suffering Servant oracle, he indicates
that the Servant will suffer, carrying the sins of humanity quite simply because
it is the will of God that he do so: The Lord was pleased to crush him in
infirmity... Through his suffering, my servant shall justify many.We know that the Servant's suffering will end
-- he shall see light in fullness of days
-- but first, he will suffer.
Jesus Christ offers himself entirely for us; he is the
ultimate scapegoat, the high priest who
has been tested in every way, according to the Letter to the Hebrews.Born a man in order to share in our humanity,
he took humanity to the cross because it was God's will.So, when, in Mark's Gospel, James and John
ask, Grant that in your glory we may sit
one at your right and the other at your left, they truly have no idea what
such a gift might entail.They do not
want to envision the coming suffering of Jesus; they just want to cut straight
to the chase, and be with him in heaven.And they certainly don't want to participate in that suffering!But to drink
the cup with Jesus is to be baptized into his death:Jesus challenges them to a dose of the
reality of salvation at work in their lives.For the love of humanity, we, like Jesus, can suffer precisely because Christ has done so and continues to do
so.The love that Jesus offered on the
cross is just as profound and complete now as it was over two thousand years
ago, and it is that love that is a model we are called to follow.For the Lord
can deliver us from death, as
Psalm 33 states, and the eyes of the Lord
are on those who fear him.We are
called to be in awe of the sacrifice of Christ, in awe of the love he embodies,
in awe of the mercy he
represents.And we, too, are called to drink the cup, to embrace suffering and
sacrifice, to love as Jesus loved, to suffer as he suffered.
Are you ready to enter into the depth of Jesus' love today?
