All Saints 2014

All Saints Day 2014 (Matthew 5:1-12) “Blessed are you.”

The blessing of God is the real presence of God in our lives. In the beatitudes, Jesus overturns the expectations and beliefs of the religious and political elites. Most people then as now defined blessings in the terms of wealth and power. God defines blessings as the abundant life lived in union with the Father, through the Son, by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.

Why was (and is) there such a discrepancy? Certainly, Jesus never preached self-abnegation. Jesus never taught deprivation and scarcity. Jesus never said that wealth and power are evil. Jesus did correct the assumption that blessings are only for the righteous, the rich and the powerful. This assumption derives from the original temptation to equate God with power and knowledge.

The Bible is very clear that what occupies our time and attention becomes our God. That is why Moses and the prophets teach: love God with all of your heart, all of your soul and all of your mind. All means all. All means that worship of God is our first priority. Moses and the prophets also observe that most people most of the time make a different choice.

For ancient people the outward and visible sign of that choice was idolatry. The prophets record how the vast majority of people in Israel attempted to hedge their bets. They worshipped God, when it was not inconvenient or costly. They also worshipped the various specialty deities of the nations. If they wanted success in war, romance, business or any other activity, they worshipped the deity they believed oversaw that activity. By Jesus’ time, Israel no longer worshipped the specialized deities of the surrounding nations. However, they still wanted the same things that their ancestors valued. They still wanted wealth, power, pleasure and prestige. They still placed these things first in their lives. They reworked their religion to sanctify their priorities.

When Jesus declares: blessed are the poor, he contradicts everything everyone knew about God, the world and human nature. How could the poor be blessed? Only the rich are blessed. Poverty is not a blessing. Poverty is a curse. God blesses the righteous with wealth and punishes the unrighteous with poverty. This way of thinking simply justifies the pattern of Original Sin. This way of thinking rejects the priorities God has revealed through Moses and the Prophets. Jesus reminded the people of his generation and of all generations that wealth apart from God is a trap. Jesus said: what does it profit if you gain the whole world -if you are the richest and most powerful person in the world- and lose your own soul? Sadly, most people are quite willing to accept that bargain. Most people don’t believe God. They may believe in God, much as Satan and the demons believe in God. But, they hold that belief without faith. Faith is trust and faith is loyalty.

The blessing comes by faith not by belief. It is a gift. The gift is Jesus himself. The saints are those who walked the ways of this world by faith. They were not perfect. Some, such as St. Paul, had what we call today “anger management issues.”  If you read the biographies of the saints you recognize that they were all unique. You also perceive how they all struggled with the distortions of original sin by faith. They learned how to trust God. They learned that the spiritual life is a journey not a destination, a path not a set of possessions.

We honor the saints for their loyalty to Christ as their first priority. They still committed sins. They still had their faults and their doubts. Yet, they made a firm resolve to make Jesus their first priority. God invites all of us to be saints, to make a firm resolve to place Jesus first in our list of our priorities. Heaven is not a reward for right actions or right beliefs. Hell is not a punishment for wrong actions and wrong beliefs. Heaven is a personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ. And, it is a choice. The Bible is very honest in its assessment of human nature and human choice. Even those who assert a belief in God have a tendency to reject the way of faith. That is why the universal church discerns that many of us are not quite ready for prime time.

The Church Triumphant is the experience of Heaven for those who in this world attempted to make Jesus their first priority. They still grow in grace. But, they grow from the place of love. The Church Expectant is the experience of Heaven for those who in this world did not attempt to make Jesus their first priority. They need to complete that developmental task before they can enter into the Church Triumphant for the next stage of growing in grace.

We are here today as the Church Militant. We live in the world of choice, which is the world of duality, the either/or.  Choice is the initiating principle of Salvation, love and blessing. Choice forms our priorities. Choice receives the blessings God is constantly pouring out to everyone. The poor are blessed only because they have fewer obstacles to bar their way along the path of blessing. The poverty itself is not the blessing. The poverty can clear their way to make a choice to be embraced by the saving grace of divine love in Jesus Christ. You do not have to be poor to receive the divine blessing. Your choice to receive the blessing will be more difficult. There will be more distractions and desires to seduce you away from the blessing.

This is the key to understanding the beatitudes. This key is what activates the way of faith. This is why Jesus turns the beliefs of his listeners upside down when he describes the poor, the mournful, the meek, the hungry and the thirsty as the blessed. The blessed are the saints who make a real choice to live in the real presence of God in Jesus Christ.

The question is: what chains of inherited belief keep us from experiencing the divine blessing? Where does our belief system subvert the way of faith? How are we placing Jesus last in our lives? What are we placing first in our lives? The saints can help us ask and answer these questions. We can read their biographies and study their example. We can also ask for their help. God created us to live and move and have our being in the way of blessedness. Only our choice limits the abundance God offers us and all people everywhere.

Jesus teaches: how blessed are you. The blessing is already there for us as an unconditional gift. With Holy Mother Mary, the Queen of Saints, we simply need t