Those Who Long to See His Face
NOVEMBER 1, 2016 FEAST
OF ALL SAINTS
Inventory
What does the feast of All Saints say to
you? How does it motivate you?
Input
The Entrance
Antiphon invites us to focus on joy expressed in praise: “Let us all
rejoice.... Let us join with the angels in joyful praise.” It should give us
joy to think about all the “saints” who are in heaven. But why?
The Opening
Prayer(s) give us two different reasons for appreciating the saints. They
reflect two different ways of looking at ourselves and our religion — both
good, but the second perhaps better than the first. In the first prayer we ask
God, “May their prayers bring us your forgiveness and love.” We see the saints
as interceding for us in our sinfulness. In the second we ask, “May we who
aspire to have a part in their joy be filled with the Spirit that blessed their
lives....” We see the saints as evidence that our religion gives joy through
the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The difference between the two prayers
reflects the most significant change of perspective that the Second Vatican
Council (1962-1965) brought to Christian life and ministry. Admitting to some
over-simplification, we can say that the focus of the generations before the
Council was on “getting to heaven,” while the focus now is on “growing to
perfection.” Before, we were preoccupied with asking for forgiveness of our
sins. Now we are preoccupied with asking to be like the saints, “so that having
shared their faith on earth we may also know their peace in your Kingdom.”
The Kingdom comes to perfection in
heaven, but we are working now, as faithful “stewards of the kingship of
Christ” to bring it to be on earth. And the Council has emphasized the special
role of the laity in this:
The
laity likewise share in the priestly, prophetic, and royal office of Christ and
therefore have their own share in the mission of the whole people of God in the
Church and in the world.
They
exercise the apostolate in fact by... penetrating and perfecting the temporal
order through the spirit of the Gospel. In this way, their temporal activity
openly bears witness to Christ and promotes the salvation of all. Since the
laity, in accordance with their state of life, live in the midst of the world
and its concerns, they are called by God to exercise their apostolate in the
world like leaven, with the ardor of the spirit of Christ.
The laity derive the
right and duty to the apostolate from their union with Christ the head;
incorporated into Christ's Mystical Body through Baptism and strengthened by
the power of the Holy Spirit through Confirmation, they are assigned to the
apostolate by the Lord Himself (Decree on
the Apostolate of the Laity, nos. 2-3).
To fulfill their mission, the laity must
be holy. The Catechism of the Catholic
Church affirms that the fruit referred
to when Jesus says that if we “abide in him, and he in us, we will “bear much
fruit” is the “holiness of a life made
fruitful by union with Christ” (no. 2074). The laity’s call to holiness is a key element in the Council’s new
presentation of Christianity.
Before the Council it was commonly taught
and accepted that only those who took vows in religious orders were following
the “way of perfection.” This was also called the “way of the counsels,” based
on the unchallencged interpretation of Jesus’ words to the young man in Matthew 19:21, “If you wish
to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” Because he was rich and unwilling to make the
sacrifice, the young man “went away sad.” But not sinful. The interpretation
was that “selling all” was Jesus’ advice
(counsel) to those who wanted to be perfect,
but those who were willing to settle for less could still be saved by following
the “way of the commandments.” To be on the “A team” you had to take vows as a
priest, brother or nun. The laity were the “B team.”
The
bishops at Vatican II shot this interpretation out of the water. “To be
perfect” means to follow the only perfect way of life, which is Christianity as
such: the life of grace. To accept Baptism is already to “sell all” in a
radical way, because Baptism is a choice to die with Christ and in Christ in
order to come back to life as his risen body on earth with nothing to live for
except to let Jesus live and continue his mission in us. As Paul wrote, “It is
no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). The Council was explicit:
Every
Catholic must therefore aim at Christian perfection (cf James 1:4; Romans
12:1-2).
Thus it is
evident to everyone that all the faithful of Christ of whatever rank or status
are called to the fullness of the
Christian life and to the perfection
of charity. (Decree on Ecumenism no.
4; The Church no. 40).
If there are any “first string” and
“second string” Christians. it is based
on each individual’s response to Jesus, not on the particular state of life to
which one is called. The word “saints” means “holy ones,” and it was the word
St. Paul preferred when referring to
Christians in general. We are all made holy by sharing in God’s divine life,
and we are called to be as holy as Jesus, whose body we are, in everything we
say and do. Jesus said, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly
Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). We
are all called to be saints. St. Paul calls us saints already.
The
next two prayers continue the contrast. The Prayer
over the Gifts focuses on the saints’ “concern to help and save us.” But in
the Prayer after Communion we “praise
your glory reflected in the saints” and ask to be “filled with your love and
prepared for the joy of your Kingdom.” Oversimplifying again, we can say that
since the Council we have shifted the emphasis from healing to holiness and
from groveling to growth. The Responsorial (Psalm 24) describes us well: “Lord, this
is the people that longs to see your face.”
We are not looking down, bewailing our clay feet. We are looking up, longing to
see the face of God.
A Preview
and Promise
When Revelation 7:2-14 gives numbers for those
saved, these are not meant to be statistics. The Jerome Biblical Commentary explains:
The number 12 is the
symbol of perfection.... The second 12 corresponds to the tribes of Israel, the
People of God. Finally, 1000 indicates a very large number, and 144,000 [12 X
12 X 1000] symbolizes the number of the elect whose real number is known to God
alone. [The words “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and
languages” mean that] the number scarcely refers only to Jewish Christians;
rather it stands for all the members of the Church, the true Israel.
The Responsorial
tells us who is found in that number: “Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face” (Psalm 24):
Who can ascend the
mountain of the Lord or stand in his holy place?
Those whose hands are
sinless, whose heart is clean, who desire not what is vain.... who seek the face of God.
A Picture
of the Saints
This is basically the picture Jesus
paints in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12).
They all speak of desire for God or what helps people have that desire. The
“Kingdom of heaven” belongs to those who are open to the “more” because they
“know they haven’t got it made” (the poor in spirit); to those who are made reflective
by sorrow and preserved from the cancer of power by a spirit of nonviolence
(the “meek”); to those who aid others out of a sense of relatedness (show
“mercy”) and seek peace; to those who “hunger and thirst for holiness,”
rejecting with undivided hearts the idolatry of enslavement to any created
value, person or project.
This
is the holiness all of us must pursue:
Every
Catholic must therefore aim at Christian perfection,,,,
Thus it is evident to everyone that all the faithful of Christ of
whatever rank or status are called to the fullness
of the Christian life and to the perfection
of charity.
“Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.”
Pure
because He is Pure
1John 3:1-3 tells us that when we do see his face, “we
shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” John says that “all those
who have this hope” — that is, this desire characterized by practical belief in
its attainability because it is “based
on him” — will “keep themselves pure, as
he is pure.”
“Pure”
means unmixed. It is the characteristic of the “single-hearted” or “pure of
heart” to whom Jesus promised, “They shall see God.” It is also the First
Commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with
all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). It forbids any dividedness,
because that is idolatry.
God is One in the absolute undividedness of
his Being. He is infinitely “pure,” unmixed, undivided, whole and entire in his
Being and in his every action. That is why those who respond to the One God
must be one in heart as he is. They must “keep themselves pure, as he is pure.”
The closing
line of John’s letter is, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1John 5:21).
Insight:
Christian
life is characterized by pure longing, undivided desire to “see God’s face,” to
know him as he is, so that we might love him as he deserves and serve him
according to his will.
Initiative:
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Explicitly adopt the goal, in a conscious act of
choice, to seek “perfection.” Don’t consider the choice made until you have
decided on the first (or next) concrete step you will make to work toward the
“fullness” of the life of grace.
(Same Day) Tuesday of the Thirty-first Week of Year II
Time Management
(Same Day) Tuesday of the Thirty-first Week of Year II
The Responsorial Psalm is a vision of the kingdom established: “I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people” (Psalm 26).
In
Philippians 2: 5-11. Paul roots
abandonment in Jesus’ example:
Your attitude must be Christ’s. Though he was in
the form of God, he did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped
at. Rather, he emptied himself and took the form of a slave, being born in
human likeness.
If
for our sake Jesus was willing to give up what he had as God in heaven, we
should be willing for the sake of others to give up what we have here on earth!
No matter how rich we are, it is still very little. And it doesn’t last.
To
trade life for Life is a good bargain. Granted, it may be a long-term
investment (or may not be; who knows?), but the pay-off is enormous.
Paul
gives us Jesus again as an example of abandonment’s reward:
Because of this God highly exalted him and
bestowed on him the name above every other name,
So that at Jesus’ name every knee must bend, in
the heavens, on earth, and under the earth,
and every tongue proclaim to the glory of God
the Father,
JESUS CHRIST IS LORD!
In
our case, the payoff is to see the reign of God established on earth as it is
in heaven. We will see the “unity and peace of his kingdom” when all are
gathered together in perfect reconciliation and love at the “wedding banquet of
the Lamb,” but there is no reason why this cannot be increasingly realized on
earth, here and now. No reason except people’s refusal to abandon themselves
and their misguided self-interest in order to devote themselves as faithful stewards to establishing the
kingship of Christ.
In
Luke 14: 15-24 Jesus tells us why
they won’t. A guest at a party got carried away thinking about what a party we
will have at the “wedding banquet of the Lamb.” He said, “How blessed is anyone
who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”
Jesus
answered that a lot of people don’t feel this way. The invitation to the party
is offered to all. But many — and sometimes it seems to be most — of those
invited say they just haven’t got time for it.
They all alike began to make excuses: “I have
bought some land, and I must go out and inspect it…. I have bought five yoke of
oxen, and I am going out to test them…. I have just got married, and therefore
I cannot come.”
Possessions,
work and family concerns absorb us. We play with our toys, work to buy more,
and think we can have a good family life without focusing on God. If the
“Abandon ship!” were sounding and rescue were at hand, we would be too
preoccupied to pay attention! So who are the fools?
Initiative:
Be Christ’s steward. Look ahead. Use time for eternity.
