November 2, 2025: Blessed are You

The Gospel: Luke 6: 20-31                     
  
Today we celebrate All Saints Day but what or who is a saint? The early Christian definition was of a martyr who died defending his or her faith as many of the early disciples did. “Christian tradition holds that the first martyr was Saint Stephen, a follower of Jesus who was stoned to death a year after the Crucifixion. The first recorded veneration of a martyr was Saint Polycarp, a bishop who was burned to death around 156 CE. A letter written at the time describes how his followers scoured the ashes for his bones and gathered them up because they were "more valuable than precious stones." They buried these remains, called relics, at a site where they could visit them in celebration of the anniversary of his death. “ (EBSCO)

We know that early Christians believed that the relics, often bones of a saint, were sacred and could bring good luck. They would often make pilgrimages to see and touch the relics of a saint praying for what they needed. Russ and I saw some of these relics in churches in Portugal last summer, but the ones we saw were now encased in glass, no touching. There was one very unique set of relics: The Chapel of Bones - in Evora. This interior chapel is made up of the bones and skulls of up to 6000 monks that cover the walls, create the arches etc. The monks who created the chapel wanted to remind the wealthy community of the 16th Century when it was built that our lives are finite. The sign above the door says, “We bones are here, waiting for yours.” Although honestly a bit overwhelming for me, I get their message and there is comfort in knowing that death is an ongoing and natural part of life. 

The Catholic Church still canonizes saints today in a long process that looks at a person’s life after they have died, and when warranted, declares it exceptionally holy and worthy of being called a saint. Pope Leo recently canonized the first millennial saint -Blessed Acutis, a teenager known for his devotion to the Eucharist and creating an online exhibition of Eucharistic miracles. He was born in Milan in 1991 and used his tech skills to evangelize online but sadly died of Leukemia in 2006 at the age of 15.

But as I look around this sanctuary, I see a lot of living saints. In our Christian tradition, a saint is someone who is devoted to Jesus Christ and seeks to follow his teachings - I think we all qualify for that, at least on our good days.

As Father Richard Rohr says, “Living in the communion of saints means that we can take ourselves very seriously (we are part of a Great Whole) and not take ourselves too seriously at all (we are just a part of the Great Whole) at the very same time.”

We saints try our best to try to have what I call positive “be” attitudes: an attitude of gratitude for what we have and who we are - taking time to just “be” in that posture of devotion and thankfulness to God and the willingness to “be” a blessing to others in need. 

Sometimes that “be” attitude comes in the form of a prayer - “Holy One, Holy three, what do you want me to “be” today and for whom?” A “be” attitude is a humble one - as we offer ourselves as God’s legs, hands and mouth here on earth. To find what God wants from us, sometimes we need to take time to just “be”: to sit in contemplation and listen to how the Holy Spirit will move us. 

And when we saints listen and become God’s legs, hands, and mouths on earth, we are blessed as we help the poor, even if we aren’t poor at the moment. 

We are blessed as we help feed those who are hungry, even if we ourselves are not currently hungry. 

We are blessed as we listen to those who are weeping, maybe even letting them cry on our shoulders, so that they may laugh again. 

We are blessed when we come into this sanctuary or spend time in contemplation with God despite the fact that most of the people in this state, country, and world are not doing that right now or ever. 

Of course, Luke included the woes too. Woe to the rich, full and laughing because things change at times, don’t they? We have all had times of suffering and we will have them again. But the point is that if we have “be” attitudes of service and gratitude, we do not live in the woes, we learn from them and go back to “being.”

This All Saints Day, we connect to our fellow saints - those people whose lives touched ours and allowed us to have “be” attitudes. They may have left our earthly presence, but they are still with us, living through us in our mannerisms, in our attitudes, and in the smiles of our memories. 

Remembrance of Saints

James Finley said in his Turning to the Mystics Podcast that “When we die, we don’t go anywhere, but rather, we cross over into unmediated, infinite union with God. We cross over into loving God, with God’s own love for God, which is the Holy Spirit. We cross over into knowing God, with God’s own knowledge of God, which is Christ.”
Let’s honor our recently departed saints, those who have left us in the last year to join that beautiful, infinite union with God. 

Pastor Michelle Fountain

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