November 1^st 2015.  Feast of All Saints

Gospel: Matthew 5: 1-12

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

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GOSPEL Matthew 5:1-12

Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up the hill. There he sat down and was joined by his disciples. Then he began to speak. This is what he taught them:

‘How happy are the poor in spirit; theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Happy the gentle: they shall have the earth for their heritage.
Happy those who mourn: they shall be comforted.
Happy those who hunger and thirst for what is right: they shall be satisfied.
Happy the merciful: they shall have mercy shown them.
Happy the pure in heart: they shall see God.
Happy the peacemakers: they shall be called sons of God.
Happy those who are persecuted in the cause of right: theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

‘Happy are you when people abuse you and persecute you and speak all kinds of calumny against you on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven; this is how they persecuted the prophets before you’

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . In the Gospel of the Beatitudes, Jesus lists eight absurdities that go against conventional wisdom. No one really wants to be poor, sorrowful, meek, or hungry! No one wants to have their public image destroyed. But Jesus is telling us that if we wish to be holy, if we wish to love like him, then we must learn to be poor and meek. We must not be full of ourselves and fixated with our own prosperity, satisfaction and reputation. We can only love and be merciful towards others if we are willing to suffer, be corrected and are unconcerned about our image in the eyes of others. The Beatitudes tells us how to order our hearts correctly. Conventional wisdom is self-directed, and this can lead to chaos in the heart if my own desires become absolutes. The goal of the Beatitudes is to step away from a self-absorbed life; to acknowledge my poverty, smallness, sinfulness and need of mercy. This leads to the principal point: when I live the Beatitudes I move away from a self-referential existence and give God the space to operate in me. My works then become His works. This is the foundation of sanctity.

The reason Jesus became man was so that we might become divinised; that we might receive the Spirit and begin living the life of God. This is what it means to be a “saint”

On Sunday we celebrate sanctity itself, the gift by which a human being can be inhabited by the Holy Spirit. The theme of the divinisation of the person is very dear to the eastern Church. It is, in fact, the reason that Jesus became incarnate. As the Creed tells us, Jesus became a human being for our salvation, to bestow on us the gift of the Holy Spirit and to introduce us into the very life of the Trinity. The first reading from the Apocalypse tells of an innumerable group of people who have the characteristics of sanctity. They stand before the throne of the Lamb, not humiliated in any sense, but partaking of the honour associated with the Lamb. Their clothes are brilliant white and they hold in their hands the palm, which is the symbol of victory. They cry aloud in joy and happiness. Why so? This cry is an expression of the fact that they have allowed themselves to be saved by the Lamb. How many “salvations” surround us, none of which lead to heaven or true glory! The reading tells us that the multitude that has been saved are the ones that have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. What a strange washing detergent! We would not normally consider blood to have cleansing properties but from the Christian point of view there is certainly a blood that washes whiter than snow. We must immerse ourselves in the blood of the Lamb, in the love which he has brought to us through his sacrifice. In the Eucharist he immerses himself in us, and we are called to immerse ourselves in him and become new people. When our poverty comes in contact with the blood of Christ, everything becomes light and salvation.

The Beatitudes are a list of absurd statements that go against conventional wisdom. But if we look at the matter carefully, we will see that the self-referential nature of conventional wisdom creates insurmountable barriers to true love

The Gospel contains the Beatitudes. This paradoxical passage lists eight absurdities, eight statements that go against conventional wisdom. Most of us are inclined to think that economic prosperity is important, that laughter and entertainment are pleasant, that the respect of others is valuable, that one’s personal rights must be defended, that our appetites must be satisfied, that no one should be allowed to harm us, that we should be allowed to express our grievances freely. In other words, conventional wisdom is the exact opposite of the Beatitudes! But if we look at it closely, we will see that a person who lives by these “counter-Beatitudes” is someone who doesn’t know how to love. People who are fixated by their own prosperity, contentment, reputation, are people who will not dirty their hands with the sufferings of others. They will not be aware of how much we have received and how much we ought to give in return. Want and insufficiency are necessary for us in order to correct us and help us attain a perspective on what really matters in life. It is hard to live with those who always want to win, who always want to feel that they are right, who refuse to acknowledge their own errors, who cannot control their own desires, who fail to show mercy towards others, who think only of their own affairs, who refuse to see the problems of those around them. In order to be able to love others, we must not be preoccupied with our own image in the eyes of others. We must be ready to allow our image to be destroyed for the love of others.

The Beatitudes are bridges to God and others

At first sight, the Beatitudes may seem absurd, but they are the only bridge between us and God, and between us and others. They involve journeys of a Paschal sort. It is no fun to be poor, but it prompts us to open up a space for God in our lives. Weeping is not enjoyable, but we must know how to weep if we are to learn to love. To be meek offers us no worldly advantage, but it makes space for others in my life. It is the antidote to always wanting to be in first place, always wanting to have one over others. Meekness permits us to have a victory of a very different kind, to conquer a different sort of country. To not feel righteous, but to have a hunger and thirst for righteousness, indicates humility, smallness, openness to correction. It is not nice to be exposed to the correction of others, but it leads to great peace. We discover the same peace when we show mercy and pardon towards others.

The Beatitudes show the correct way to order our hearts. Without them, our hearts become disordered, chaotic places in which our own desires become absolutes. But the goal of the Beatitudes is to step away from a self-referential life; to acknowledge my poverty, smallness, sinfulness and need of mercy; to allow God to operate in me. This is the foundation of sanctity.

To leave our hearts open in this way is wearisome, but it leads to great personal growth. If we behave like babies and make every desire of ours an absolute, then our hearts become a disordered place headed towards disaster. Many people live horrible lives because their hearts cannot distinguish a legitimate, edifying desire from a destructive one. They do not know how to purify, limit, control their interior impulses. To live a life free from being concerned about the opinions of others is difficult, but beautiful. Sanctity, however, at the end of the day involves exploiting all of these situations to allow God the space to carry out his surprising work within us. In poverty, let us be surprised by God; in sadness, meekness, in our need for mercy, in our interior appetite to be made clean: let us place ourselves in the presence of God and allow him to work. If our image in the eyes of others is destroyed, let us be aware that there is only one person anyhow who knows us truly. In summary, a saint is one who allows God to operate in their lives, who allows God to be God. Consequently God is able to perform his work in them.