Many of us are familiar with the opening line pronounced by the presiding minister at a wedding, “Dearly Beloved, we are gathered here together…” The celebration of the union of two is witnessed by and in the Sacrament of Marriage set purposefully within the deep context of community. This seems to point up the idea that relationship as a committed endeavor in Love and truth always concentrates and expands. Love is concentrated in the two persons of the relationship supported by the larger community while simultaneously expanding outward in waves of love fulfilled. So, today is the Solemnity of All Saints Day. The book of Revelation describes this wonderful gathering (REV 7: 2-14, 9-14):
“…a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue…”
This great multitude of diversity is gathered together around the “throne” of love in this magnificent image of what we may call “heaven.” And we are told that these diverse persons gathered together, who have washed their robes, are those who have lived their lives in the grace and faithfulness offered them through suffering and sometimes inexplicable circumstances. In this beatific scene, this wonderful gathering is drawn together in the unifying connection that words fail to express. These are our Saints…We are these Saints! John, in his letter (1 JN 3: 1-3), gives greater dimension to this gathering without trying to explain away the suffering by simply stating the reality of our status…BELOVED!
“Beloved: See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are…we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed”
We are children of God! Could we be closer to God? Sons and daughters of God – we are children of God. That is who we are NOW! As John says, we do not know what we will be later, but it can only get deeper and better. Children NOW, of GOD! If that’s not the definition of a Saint, I don’t know what is! How do we get there? Where is “heaven?” Where is “there?” What if it is already HERE? We all have known or know those still, who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb – the suffering and joy of the human life. As we know, these are “the ones who have survived the time of great distress.” These are our Beloved, our Loved Ones, who have embraced and still now embrace Life and death in a way that cultivates and deepens trust, hope, and Love! It seems that being a Saint is never a static moment of achievement, but actually a constant engagement in honest practice of surrender, wherein Life is received as it comes to us in the flow of Divine Love. Is this what Jesus is telling us (MT 5: 1-12A) on the mountain when He names those attitudes of Being and Living that mark the most holy and authentic expressions of human life. To the “Dearly Beloved” gathered, Jesus is identifying the everyday loving responses that we can choose in the midst of an often-times troubled and struggling world. “Blessed are you…” and the inexhaustible list commences: the poor in spirit, the lowly, the hungry, the humble, the peacemakers, the merciful, etc. There is nothing lofty in this picture of sainthood. The sanctity that Jesus is underlining involves responses that fly in the face of isolationist and exclusionary modes of engaging in life and people.
Dearly Beloved, we are gathered here to celebrate that we are the BELOVED! – we are created to BE-LOVE. All else is an effrontery and in fact a falsehood. We are holy children that are set with the “task” of simply learning how to “play” with each other. This is not a call to naiveté and victimization, but rather to resilience in honest expressions of “children of God” – the Beloved! These are the BE-attitudes of divine holiness created within each one of us that is constantly looking for a way to “dance” its way through us, drawing us closer in love by spreading it outward.
Could being a saint simply mean to recognize and accept the transformation that comes along with the realization that every relationship is the opportunity for a beloved response? Everyday encounters can become miraculous when we witness, support, and empower each other gathered together. When life shares suffering through mercy, humility, justice, and peace, then we are being loved and being LOVE!
Today, of all days in the year, for me celebrates the close proximity of heaven within our lives now. Every relationship has the option to sanctify, in our very souls, the shared kinship we have in Christ, in GOD! We do honor to all the beloved saints in our lives when we acknowledge them and ourselves as sharing the Life in God. Then, we shall, as John reminds us, “be like” God, by seeing God in each other!
Happy All Saints Day!
Peace
Thomas
(originally published November 1, 2016)