Solemnity of All Saints Reflection
Solemnity Of All Saints – Our Call To Holiness – (Matthew 5:1-12) –
The Beatitudes – An alternative Translation from the Aramaic
Tuned to the Source are those who live by breathing Unity – their “I can!” is included in God’s.
Blessed are those in emotional turmoil; they shall be united inside by love.
Healthy are those who have softened what is rigid within; they shall receive physical vigour and strength from the universe.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for physical justice; they shall be surrounded by what is needed to sustain their bodies.
Blessed are those who, from their inner wombs, birth mercy; they shall feel its warm arms embrace them.
Aligned with the One are those whose lives radiate from a core of love; they shall see God everywhere.
Blessed are those who plant peace each season; they shall be named the children of God.
Blessings to those who are dislocated for the cause of justice; their new home is the province of the universe.
Called to be saints, all of us, each and every one of us, called to be saints; not dead saints, but living saints.
Unwrapping the saints from their death shrouds, we are called to remember that when Holy Scripture speaks sixty-three times of the saints, all those people are not dead. They are all alive, no dead people, all saints of this living world; the saints in Corinth, the saints in Philippi, the saints in Ephesus!
Our sainthood is already guaranteed in the victory of Jesus the Christ, which the reading from Romans affirms, ‘Neither death nor powers, nor creatures of any kind can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus’. Our holiness is rooted not in our perfection, nor our good works, but in the power of Jesus, the Christ who redeems us.
This holiness, this blessedness, unites us to each other and to all of creation in and through God, the Word that creates, sustains, and animates throughout all time. This is what we are called to remember each time we celebrate the glorious wonder of the Eucharist.
We are all made saints already, by God’s Word, by the Eucharist, by the redeeming love of Jesus. But somehow we have to catch up with our best selves of who we really are. Today we are called to remember who we are, in and through God, each other, and creation.
It is in this remembrance that we are called to forsake our greed with all its violent ways.
Jesus does not teach the Beatitudes as an illustration but as a transformative step toward healing the paranoid illusion of alienation, we feel from God, from creation, from self, and from our neighbour. The Love of God that we participate in and reflect to each other is the reality of the kingdom of God within us and with us; each and every single one of us, from the beginning of time to the last birth of this world. This is the proclamation that we are called to make as we remember and return to resonate with God’s Love.
We use the Beatitudes as a barometer, to remember and transform ourselves and then the world to create the kingdom of God here on earth. This is our opportunity to stop, reconsider, seek truth, and begin again.
In the mirror I see darkly now, for the shadows of my hidden needs for belonging and recognition tint my vision. My actions I deem pure, filled with selflessness, generosity, piety, and service. Why, then O God is my heart now so heavy and the darkness so stifling?
Perhaps, maybe, on the off chance, I ask for vision untainted, to see, to see again; let me stand in the presence of the sinner, a low life outcast and the religious leader as they present themselves to God, the merciful and loving parent, but also the righteous judge.
How have I presented myself, so good and pure, compared to raw, vulgar ugliness of those who are on the wrong path, the poor, the sick, the elderly, the worthless and battered on the journey of life?
To sentence outright would show me in that same vulgar light, but perhaps in the ongoing resume of my leadership, my abilities, insight, unselfish, and generous service, the condemnation is as evident as all those threadbare addictive little life quotes I bequeath.
The sinner in the far corner and the righteous on centre stage, proud and in control. And so now I remember who went away with new heart in that wonderful light of God’s compassion.
Today I ask for that grace, the sting of recognition, the vulnerability of a broken heart with all the repressed emotions that exposes those fragile wounds and weak spots. This is the road to beginning again, the Way of redemption.
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