All Saints, Sunday – 1st November 2020 — Gospel: Mt 5,1-12a
Revolutionary Call to Holiness
The Solemnity of all Saints reminds us that we are united with a galaxy of witnesses, who inspires, intercedes for us and challenges us to make the ‘universal call to holiness’ ours. A perusal of the book of saints will offer potential disappointment to anyone who hopes to become a saint: many suffered greatly to the faith, often to the point of death in most cruel ways. Yet, Saints are not from above; they are one among us. Their lives mirrored ours: our desires, our doubts, and our struggles to follow Jesus. Upon realizing the precious status of being the children of God, they dedicated their entire life to God, leaving behind all the pleasures of the earth. So they remind us once again of the truth of our existence. They stand as milestones because they have gone before us and have reached their final destiny. Now, they show us the examples of how to live our Christian life meaningfully in different circumstances without losing our focus.
There is no “one size fits all” for saints. They come in every size and shape, of every time in history, male and female, young and old, rich and poor. Some were quiet voices praying in the wilderness or suffered silently; some led great armies or founded global religious congregations. At the simplest level, a saint is someone who has led an exceptionally holy and Godly life, although that exemplary life may have come after an imperfect start. They help us to concentrate on the one thing necessary in our lives, which is our deeper relationship with God. They also remind us to reach God, or the other shore, together with the cosmos and all human beings. They are looking down on us with love and concern, and they want nothing more than to see us grow into the fullness of Christ’s love.
We are not readymade humans but our call is to become humans, perfect humans like Jesus. The beatitudes speak of the eschatological transformation where we become like Jesus. They are the pathways of living in true joy and peace, path to reach heaven and to attain sainthood. The beatitudes are a collection of eight characteristics (quality of life) that separate children of God from the rest of the world (5,3-12). Jesus’ vision of blessedness is magnanimously inclusive of everyone. They reveal who are the fortunate ones and how they attain it. Thus, we are inspired by the beatitudes to become inclusive in our life and in sharing the experience of God, irrespective of different categories of people.
The beatitudes are not just a list of wise insights but the outflow of God’s own goodness as reflected in Jesus’ ministry. Living the beatitudes is wrestling with Jesus’ revolutionary call to turn to the poor, the mourning, and the weak in order to see and experience the shape of God’s kingdom. It is a call to live a life of holiness and righteousness not in a moralistic sense, but as a response of gratitude for God’s graceful deeds to build his kingdom. These are not eight different groups of people (poor, mourners, meek, etc.) but every Christian is meant to manifest every one of these characteristics. They express in positive terms what are the attitudes for Christians to base themselves and should continuously strive for. Therefore the beatitudes are identifiers of discipleship, characteristics of the faithful, and attributes of believers.
Jesus’ beatitudes are nonsensical in terms of the powerful, the rich, and the comfortable. How can weakness be powerful? How can peacemakers thrive in a world stained with violence? How can persecution be a site of blessed transformation? While the world has turned down its head towards the marginalized bluntly, we ought to bend towards these victims in order to share their solidarity of blessedness. The question remains whether we will echo those promises of the kingdom or participate in the process of making their liberation a reality.
