Saint Matthew 5: 1-12
All Saints Day [Transferred]: 3 November Anno Domini 2019
Father Jay Watson SSP
The Holy Trinity is Holy. Theological dictionaries and systematic/dogmatic textbooks will give you an accurate theological definition of Holy. But here’s one: God IS Holy. Those things and people that God makes Holy are not God, but are bathed and infused and credited with God’s favor. They are Holy because God says so, and because He has set them apart to be His! They are the ones that are His Saints.
God desires you to celebrate All Saints Day and to take comfort in, and to give honor to, All His Holy Ones…most especially those who have left this Kingdom of Grace and now rest in sweet, yet anticipatory, repose—Abraham’s Bosom (with Lazarus).
Yes, every person, baby hopefully, that is Baptized by Jesus, His Holy Word attached to ordinary water, thus making it Holy Water indeed, every person so + washed is a Saint. Yes, your departed in the faith Mothers, Fathers, Grandparents, and friends are Saints. And yes, so too our own “Lutheran” (though that terminology seems a bit sectarian) forebears such as Luther, Melanchthon, Chemnitz and the rest are Saints. But let us not be chintzy and myopic. The company of Saints in Heaven, awaiting the Resurrection of all flesh as some “heavy hitters” indeed. It is a “Hall of Fame.” The Biblical Saints that we read about all the time, yes, but so too Saints Polycarp, Ignatius, Irenaeus, Cyprian, Athanasius, Popes Leo the Great and Gregory the Great, Jerome, Cyril of Jerusalem, Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, and many, many more. Titans of our Confession—Jesus Christ and Him crucified for the forgiveness of sins! The fact that we don’t know more about these Saints is borderline sinful. It shows we don’t appreciate the family The Lord has blessed us with. It demonstrates a nearsightedness. Christians must be historical for all history is alive and present in Christ, and in The Body of Christ—The Catholic and Apostolic—i.e. Holy Church! Some of these hallowed, HOLY, Saints were martyrs. Do you not know that you are surrounded by these Saints? Not in your head as memory or thought, but actually…as in “wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses.” [Heb. 12.1] The Greek word for witness is martyr. A Martyr is one who sheds his blood and dies in confessing Christ Crucified; as did Polycarp and Ignatius as they were burned alive; as did Hus when the same thing happened to him1400 years later. That’s why they are included in the Church’s Prayer along with the Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, and Evangelists. Learn of them. Love them. They love you and they pray for you: “just as, when alive, they pray for the Church universal in general, so in heaven they pray for the Church in general.” [Ap. 21.8] We also “see” them in John’s Revelation wherein beneath the Altar of Incense these faithful Holy Ones pray for The Lord’s Final Advent and the ingathering of all the Saints then living.
Left to our own devices and will-power, we will always dismiss The Saints and label anyone that loves them and talks about them as “Romanist.” That is the sin of pride and ego, of thinking more, too much more, of yourself. Saint Paul, by The Holy Spirit exhorts you to not be petty, envious, and small-hearted, but rather: “in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.” [Php. 2.3] Are we not all Saints? Well, yes, we are. Are we not all disciples of Jesus? Well, yes, we are. Does not The Lord love us all as a parent loves all their children? Of course. But Saint Peter, Moses, and The Blessed Virgin have contributed to The Church Militant in ways that exceed ours. So too have Cyprian, Augustine, Justin Martyr, and Irenaeus. Never be jealous of your “big brother” because He runs faster or jumps higher. No star in God’s heaven should ever blush or grimace because another star reflects Jesus’ Light with a greater brilliance.
Our covetous old nature hearts see no Saints. Likewise. our “old Adam” ears have trouble hearing Jesus’ words about loving our neighbors. Today we confess that are neighbors, our brothers, our sisters, mothers, fathers, and yes, our Fathers in the Faith be they Patristic, Medieval, or Reformation are Holy and are Saints. To honor the Saints is to honor Christ in the same way as giving food and drink and clothing to the poor is giving these necessities to Christ. We are one body and the ear needs the foot needs the heart needs the pancreas…
God loves things. He created a universe and world full of things. God loves His creatures even though they fell, and continue to trespass. He makes them all holy again through Grace by giving them Faith in His Son, the Holy Innocent Lamb of God, Who sheds His Blood to wash all the little lambs that in the crimson flood their garments would be white as snow; white as The Saints in heaven.
Join with Abraham, Gideon, Moses, Elias, and Daniel. Join with John the Baptist, Mary Magdalene, Peter, Stephen, and the Blessed Virgin. Join with Polycarp, Anthony, Ambrose, and Gerhardt.
This very hour you behold: “and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.” [Rev. 7. 9-12]
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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