Are you ready to be a saint?
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!
This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.
Image source: Wordle
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