For All the Saints

Gospel: Matthew 5: 1-12

Everyone Catholic and non-Catholic is curious about the making of saints.  The history of the process has undergone great changes over the centuries.  Initially a person was named a saint only if they were a martyr, then later growing to others named saints by popular acclamation.  Only much later did a formal bureaucratic process develop that came to investigate and declare saints, creating a hierarchy of steps from servant of God to venerable to blessed and finally to saint.  

Our modern fixation on the process are the required miracles attributed to the saint through their intercession.  We tend to overlook what truly matters - a life of virtue and holiness that is the sine qua non of sanctity.  In ancient times it was that virtue and holiness that was the focus of attention; miracles through their intercession were not even a consideration, and yet today a person cannot be declared a saint without documentation of such phenomena.  

The path to sanctity is found in today's Gospel - the Beatitudes.  To be a saint one must be poor in spirit, meek, empathetic, pure of heart, merciful, desirous of justice, peaceful, and enduring of persecution.  It is in practicing these qualities that we will affect miracles in the world.  Through these attributes we come to heal people, liberate people from their demons, and feed people in body and soul just as Jesus did.  Let us practice the Beatitudes, and the miracles will come. 

Places of Honor

Gospel: Luke 14: 1, 7-11

The Gospels report exactly two places where people vie for position, honor, and power.  The first is here in the house of the Pharisee.  It is a dinner party where people are struggling among themselves for seats of honor and status.  Here, Jesus instructs them to seek the lowly place, and at first glance it appears to be social advice, though a much deeper lesson exists here.  Jesus insists on the position of humility not as a means of obtaining a higher position, but as the place of honor itself in the kingdom of God.

The other place in the Gospels where people vie for position, honor, and power is among Jesus' own disciples.  They repeatedly argue, then as now, over who is more important and who will sit at Jesus' right and left.  Here again Jesus instructs them in the way of humility, the narrow doorway into the kingdom that demands few possessions rather than the wide road that accommodates wealth and prestige.  Again, the humble place is the preferred place in the mind of Jesus.

While we disciples love to regard the Pharisees as rivals, how often is it the case that we resemble them in action and attitude!  We have merely replaced the synagogue and Temple with church and cathedral, but the striving for seats of power and influence is the same.  But the way of Jesus is the way of humble service and care for others where no seats are available, where kneeling to wash the feet of another is the proper place in the kingdom.   

The House of God

Gospel: Luke 14: 1-6

Our common understanding of the Sabbath is associated with attendance at religious ritual in what we call the house of God - a church building, temple, or other such structure.  Also part of that thinking is the Sabbath as a day of rest.  We offer various scripture passages to justify our rituals and rules about the Sabbath, just as the Pharisees do with Jesus in today's Gospel portion.  They have attended religious services; now they are at rest at home not working.

Jesus is never recorded as being in his own home.  He is always in the house of another, or in some public place present with and to others.  That is because the home of Jesus is in human beings, the original temple of God.  To heal another person is the work of the Sabbath.  The idea of a day of rest was for the healing and restoration of others.  To heal another person is the authentic worship of God, as the Parable of the Good Samaritan teaches.  

If we are looking for the house of God, we will not find it in a building.  We will find it in the encounter with other people.  If we are looking to offer worship to God, we accomplish it in the care and healing of other people.  Our prayer and meditation must lead us back to these two fundamental realities.  If they lead us anywhere else we have taken a false turn and have stumbled into false religion.