All Saints Yrs ABC 2025

Title

Called to be Saints

Outline

A saint is one who has followed Jesus through the difficulty of this life

That is what Jesus said in the Beatitudes, for the split into two parts. The first is those who trust in Jesus in their need (the first four Beatitudes) and the second is those who live the life of Jesus in this world, for he was in person the second four Beatitudes. The final two verses point out that such a lifestyle will not be easy for it is countercultural and that the proper response to such suffering is “rejoice and be glad” in the light of coming reward.

That final section is the point of 1 John ch 3

We are children of God, indeed sons of God in that we are in Christ and Christ is in us. We should have a leap of joy in our hearts every time we say the “Our Father,” for it is based on this truth. We are children of that Father. But that puts us at odds with the world, for we have become aliens as Jesus was and is and we know how the world reject him. And then John says, “That privileged identity you have now, but something better is coming, for ‘whaat we shall be has not yet been revealed.’” In other words, make yourself pure, for it is worth it.

Revelation gives us an image of the something better

In the spiritual reality the “servants of our God” are marked, sealed, given their true identity papers. But in the coming age we find that this complete number, 144,000, is a multitude from all peoples. We see them standing before the Lamb in white robes holding palm branches and proclaiming that “Salvation comes from our God . . . and from the Lamb.” And at that all heaven falls prostrate in worship and praises God. Yet we are reminded that these holy ones “have survived the time of great distress” and have identified themselves with the sacrifice of the Lamb, his blood.

So our response is three fold

First, we are to honor those saints already in God’s eternal now and praising God. We join our worship of God to the heavenly hosts and marvel at what God has done in them.

Second, we realize that we are already children of God, marked with his seal, aliens here, at home there and we live out our belonging by living the Beatitudes. And realize Jesus is in you living them with you if you will only stop and dialogue with him before you act, as a saintly Protestant woman I saw beaming in a YouTube interview practiced. And she beamed despite multiple bouts with breast cancer and having adopted four special needs children. Jesus is purifying us in the now.

Third, keep reminding yourself that your are not only sealed now, but have a place in the great throng of the eternal now. Remember that Saint Dominic and Saint Catherine of Sienna and all the rest are cheering you on because they see you as one of them because they can see the seal of God on you. They, and Jesus, know who you are even if the world does not.

And that makes all the difference as you live in this vale of tears - it makes the difference between simply mourning and mourning with deep inner joy.