Homily from the Parish Priest for All Saints' Day
Readings for Year A: Apocalypse 7:2-14; I John 3:1-3; Matthew 5:1-12
Holiness is one of those words which it’s difficult to define but we think we know what it means when we encounter it. It’s not about achievement, it’s not about success in life. It’s about something intangible. There are particular pointers in character traits: serenity, peacefulness, fearlessness, heroism, but above all it’s something outside of our experience we just can’t define. And yet there is also something very true about holiness: although it is intangible we do recognize it and so it is something we can all aspire to, but above all it is not something we can ever attain on our own. Rather to be holy is a gift from God, to be holy rests in the mystery we are called to embrace of God’s presence in each human being made in his image, and so to recognize someone’s holiness is actually to draw us closer to God. To draw us closer to God. And that is why we hold up particular individuals who are called saints, who are examples of holiness, and so lead us to God. And to what God is all about.
So then what is God all about? What do all the saints really stand for? Well, the Gospel the Church offers us on this solemn feast day gives us an answer: it’s a well-known Gospel scene – the first part of the Sermon on the Plain – and the core of it: what are called ‘the Beatitudes’. Because they are a series of statements starting with the word ‘blessed’ representing who it is who will inhabit the Kingdom of God and are to be called blessed and indeed saintly. The translation here is ‘happy’ but it’s actually something deeper being expressed, something representing the call of God, of the witness to the things of God, to his Kingdom.
And so we are given an account here of the hallmark of the Kingdom in opposition indeed to some of the ways of the world. And these become the blueprint for living out the Christian vocation in the world. And it’s these which drive the saint and so drives all of us as human beings to realize what holiness is really about. To see in vulnerability and fragility the essence of the human soul rather than power, success, self-sufficiency. To see in the poor and the weak the presence of Christ in opposition to a counter-ethic of success, of wealth, of abuse of power, which must be overcome. To see in the human race’s capacity to make peace an obligation to do all we can to end wars, conflicts, and to condemn violence in making way for building bridges, dialogue, reconciliation. Here we get not just the flavour of the life of holiness which is in our God-given grasp but we get some stone tableted maxims which as Christians we must uphold, proclaim and work for.
I think that makes being a Christian really tough. If you’re anything like me you will recognize that following our common vocation, the call to be holy as are the saints, is as tough as it ever has been. I know I’m not alone when I discern a culture of aggression in society at the moment. The frustration with the current situation with the pandemic seems to be giving rise to a fair share of hostility rather than peace. I think in many ways we slip into an infectious denial of the situation we’re in. Those who deny the severity of the virus, who promote exclusive and inflammatory views. All this of course alongside very much soul searching, the many who in the midst of Christian congregations dwindling, are finding a new existential challenge through COVID, a new soul searching, recognizing this is a change of era, and our common call to bridge between peoples across the planet to rebuild, to rebuild ways of peace and truth which expresses our common call to be truly holy, to live the life of the Beatitudes well. And how tough that is right now.
All Saints, then, represents a fresh invitation to us to do some interior cleanout. Where are the tensions between the values of the world and those of the Kingdom? Where in my life do I see these Gospel values in stark confrontation with those of the world? Am I generous in what I give to those who are without or am I sometimes selfish, greedy, self-serving? Do I even recognise the growing catastrophe this winter of people losing jobs, livelihoods, homes in the midst of this economic downturn? Maybe I do because I’m experiencing it or am afraid of it myself. Am I satisfied with what I do for others – in my family, how I treat my friends, how I influence others, maybe in whom I associate with when I have to make tough choices of whom to bubble with? There will be some participating on the livestream today needing to – maybe already have – stand up for what they know to be the Christian choice in voting for a new leader in the most powerful country in the world. Do I compromise my Christian faith or do I, like the saints, put myself on the line for Christ, for the Kingdom, for what his Kingdom is all about?
The call of this Sermon on the Plain is first of all to recognise that I do. Yes, I do, perhaps in small ways, all the time. And so I am called to constantly look for opportunities to change. And to do this I am called to the faith of the saints: to know and to trust God, to know that when all else fails, only him and his Kingdom can give us a deep and lasting inner happiness. Can lead us to blessedness – a sense of fulfilment at living out our calling, our universal vocation to be holy, to bring Christ and His values to the world.
How do I respond to the Lord in my own call to saintliness? How do I bring the values of the Kingdom to my everyday life in this world at this time of great challenges and yet such great opportunities?
Fr Dominic Robinson SJ