All Saints (Sunday or otherwise)

1 John 3.1-3; Matthew 5.1-12

In my earlier days of following the lectionary I often wondered why this reading of the Beatitudes at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount was set for All Saints. Gradually I began to realise that those we call saints of the Church would probably show something of the qualities or virtues that Jesus speaks of like poverty of spirit, meekness, a hunger for righteousness. Later it began to dawn on me that if we were serious about our Christian life and our walk with God then it would be desirable that we too should be able to see these same qualities developing in ourselves. And now most recently I've come to the same mind that at least the Eastern Church has with regard to these Beatitudes, that these qualities or virtues aren't simply desirable in a Christian but are as St. Peter of Damaskos calls them, commandments of God Himself, indeed he calls these Beatitudes The Seven Commandments. (The Philokalia volume 3 A Treasury of Divine Knowledge)

We usually think of the 10 Commandments in the Old Testament when we think of 'Commandments'. But Jesus came, as He said, to 'fulfil the Law and the Prophets'. And so His own life and way of living in His relating to God and others is of itself a commandment to all who profess to be His followers, His disciples. When we are baptised we are baptised 'into' Christ, into His life and so for us there is no other way but His. So in that sense what Jesus tells us, the baptised, of a blessed life is a commandment to us to follow that same way. It's not simply desirable or an option. And so these Beatitudes, as well as showing us who are the 'blessed' also shows us what we are obliged to become ourselves, if we continue to profess our Christian faith and life. And I suppose that's why St. Paul could call all Christians saints and not simply those whose lives are specially marked out by the Church as 'saintly'. These Beatitudes could form a series of Bible studies giving hours to each one. We haven't got time to linger so a brief word about them, as I said, seeing them as commandments of God. And I have to thank St. Peter of Damaskos for this.

In this modern Western world and culture, the virtues we read about in the Beatitudes, I think are interpreted by people of all ages as displaying some sort of weakness of character. For instance you wouldn't find them talked about as qualities that people appearing in the Dragon's Den or The Apprentice would show. And that's where so very many people have got our Christian faith wrong. They come to the Bible and Christianity and they interpret it as weakness when in fact the exact opposite is the truth, and if you look at the lives of those who we call the Saints of the Church you will see that all of them had a peculiar strength and it's a strength that comes out of these virtues. I'm just gong to look at the first four, because our interpretation of those will help us to look on the rest in new light, with a new depth and determine their strength anew.

Poverty of spirit is the starting point; what used to be called in the old days and we see so little of nowadays - ' the Fear of God'. Psalm 111 says 'the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom'. It's that relationship with God that sees and recognises that we are totally dependent upon Him and that all we have and are comes from Him. And it recognises in that, the unfathomable depth of love and mercy God has for us, so much so that He gives His own Son to die so that we might have life, that is the life of the Spirit of God Himself. And it was Jesus who said that without Him we can do nothing but at the same time with God all things are possible. Maybe St. Paul summed this up when he said 'when I am weak then I am strong'.

I think we always get the next one wrong. It doesn't mean mourning and grieving about people who have died. It means mourning our sinfulness and the sinfulness of our neighbour. It means grieving the fact that try as we might there's always room for improvement in ourselves, that we constantly hurt one another and are an offence to one another and at the same time offend against God who made us in His image and to be like Him. 'Blessed are those who mourn' is about knowing oneself in the greatest of depths because it's only as we know ourself that we can be all that God desires of us. And it's about lamenting the way of the world and the waywardness of the world and the self-possession of the world. It's only when you know yourself and have a realistic view of the world that you can do anything positive for humankind.

Meekness again isn't some sort of shrinking violet weakness. It's a humility that accepts what comes and lives with it and learns from it and grows through it. It's not what happens to you in life that matters it's what you do about it that counts. And meekness is standing firm in all that life brings. And by that I don't mean being hard like concrete but being supple like a tree, standing firm but bending to the wind. Meekness doesn't mean being compliant but it does mean being pliable.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. And this is the power house of these virtues. It means desiring with all your heart for truth, goodness, mercy and love to prevail in all things; the Truth, goodness, mercy and love of God. It's only fuelled with this great desire that anyone can do good in the world, can represent and present Christ to the world. It's the power house of our prayer and of our life in God.

So we can see from just these four vitues how they represent not weakness but strength. When Jesus tells the story, at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, of the man who built his house on rock, it was His teaching and His way of life that is the rock on which we build the house which is our own life. And these Beatitudes are that rock. All the rest of the detail of the Sermon on the Mount itself is built on these opening words. And these virtues, because they are the Christian life are commandments for all of us that profess to be followers of Jesus, all of us who have been baptised in His name. And that's why, if our own lives are built on this rock, we too can be called saints, just as those we remember today and each on his or her own day during our Church's year.

So as we remember all the Saints today, let us think about what it was that made them who they were, because it's just the same that makes us Christians and saints today.