When we were children, we all had that person we looked up to. Whether it was our parents or a sibling, an athlete or some fictional character; each of us had someone whom we saw as a role model or as someone we’d like to be when we grow up. Perhaps we still have that person in mind today though we have gained a few more years to our life. Humanity is always seeking an inspiration to be better and to do better, to improve our lives from the drab and flab or the snoring and the boring.
Yet is this true within the Church? It seems sometimes in our own day that some Christians do not desire to follow Christ more completely or seek to transform their lives according to what Jesus teaches us, but rather, they seek to transform the Church to follow after their own example or lack of example. “Why can’t the Church change this?”, or, “Why is the Church so harsh about that?”, these lackadaisical Christians will ask. While it is easy to seek a role model among the athletes and abnormal in our society, it seems to be more difficult to seek Christ as a role model in our own time.
Today’s feast shows us that this is not meant to be the case. We celebrate the feast of All the Saints, of all the holy people who are now in Heaven enjoying eternal union with God. If there is any day which condemns the lazy Christian’s complaint about the Church and her teachings, it is this day. For we see in the lives of all the saints, known and unknown to us, how simple it is to hear the word of God and obey it. We see in the saints the heavenly role model for our Christian lives.
The saints demonstrate to us the proper attitude of the Christian to the teachings of Christ and His Church: a spirit of belief and receptivity. It is not we who are meant to change the Church in our own image, but rather Christ working through His Church in proclaiming to us how humanity is meant to be recreated in His image. The saints bear witness in being the children of God, as Saint John says we are meant to be in his letter from our readings today. If we are the children of God, then we will strive to obey our Father in all that He reveals to us through His only-begotten Son.
This filial obedience must first come through belief. The saints show us that we must believe every word coming from the mouth of Christ as coming from God Himself. Each one of them received the grace necessary to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that He was born of the Virgin Mary, lived, suffered and died for our sins, rose again on the third day, ascended, and reigns now from His holy throne in Heaven. If a Christian does not actually believe in this which we profess in the Creed every Sunday and holy day, then they do not have the Christian faith, but follow a false teacher or the devil in his lies.
This belief must then be put into practice in the life of the Christian. Saint James reminds us that faith without works is dead. We are called not only to believe in Jesus, but to live our lives based on all of His works and teachings. Our Gospel shows us the summation of this in the Beatitudes, the highest of all teachings which Jesus gave us in His earthly life. We are shown in these words not merely the condemnation of what is sinful, but the blessings which emerge for doing that which is healthful. Each phrase demonstrates to us why doing these things is good, with the final phrase revealing to us that all of this will be good in that it leads us towards the reward of Heaven.
The lives of all the saints bear witness to this promise. Look through the catalog of saints throughout the 2000 years in which the Church has existed. You will see the martyrs of the Church, showing to the pagans or even to bad Christians the primacy and reality of Christ over the false gods and false doctrines. You will see the great doctors teaching the truth and condemning errors from outside and inside the Church. You will see the holy monks and nuns who renounce all that this world offers in order to seek after Christ and to live here and now in preparation for Heaven. You will see popes, bishops, and priests directing souls to Christ through their preaching and their sacerdotal ministry. You will see married couples bearing the fruits of holiness through their marriage and through their children. You will see great and small, famous and nearly-forgotten, men, women, and children, all filled with the fire of the Holy Spirit, longing to see the face of God.
The saints are our role models for living the Christian life. They are not chosen by God to be saints apart from us. Every single one of us is called to be a saint! Sometimes, it seems that we think only some are meant to be saints while the rest of us are just supposed to be “normal” Christians. This is far from the truth; in fact, Jesus says elsewhere in the same Gospel to all of His disciples, and to all of us in turn, that we are to be perfect (Matthew 5:48). Jesus calls us to be saints!
If we are called to be saints, if we are called to be perfect, how can this be done? This process of sainthood starts not from within ourselves, but from outside of ourselves. With God all things are possible, and with the grace of God we can become saints. He has already given us the grace to become members of His Church, to partake of the sacrament of baptism so as to be washed clean of the original sin which first stained us. We should not be shy in beseeching His mercy to grant us every grace we need to be the saints He desires us to be and towards which He calls us. Our first and last recourse should always be in prayer.
We should also seek the aid of the saints. The saints are far more than role models for the Christian; they are our friends in Heaven. They desire all of us to join them in the courts of Heaven and seek to win from God all that we need in order to be with them. We should certainly find the saints that resonate with us, either in their life or in their example. There are plenty of saints to choose from, and almost every walk of life is covered, so we have no excuse for not finding a saint to be our heavenly helper.
Along with prayer to God and to the saints, we must also be receptive to receiving the sacraments frequently and in a proper state. Jesus Christ has given the sacraments to us through His Church as the primary means of distributing grace. We must take full advantage of them, most especially the Eucharist and the confessional. If we have sinned, we must not delay in receiving the mercy of God through the sacrament of reconciliation. To go for a long period of time without going to confession would be like going a long time without showering or bathing. In fact, to help with this, I plan on adding more time for confession on the weekends and even during the week. There should be little excuse on my part for you not to receive the mercy of God.
Finally, we must echo the saints in living out the Christian faith in every action of our lives. Holiness is not meant for merely one or two great moments; it is meant to be diffused throughout every moment of our life. Each decision carries with it the choice of increasing in holiness or decreasing. Saint John reminds us that if we hope to know what will be revealed to us in Heaven, then we must keep ourselves pure from sin, just as Christ is pure.
Let us pray to that great cloud of witnesses who cheers us on in Heaven that we may run so as to win (cf. Heb. 12:1; 1 Cor 9:24). Let us be inspired by the great role models of the saints to live the Christian faith to the fullest. Let us pray to the Virgin Mary, the Queen of all the saints, that she may aid us by her prayers and her example to live as the humble servants of the Lord. Let us learn from the saints the simple road of holiness taught to them and to us by Christ our divine Master. May we live such lives of holiness that we may join the great multitude in praising and glorifying Christ our Lamb and our King in the eternal joys of heaven.
No comments:
Post a Comment