RENEWsletter for November 1, 2009 - All Saints

Dear People of Renewal--
Toward the end of the Liturgical Year we encounter Halloween, All Saints Day, and All Souls Day. All Saints, as you know, is a Holy Day of Obligation. How does Halloween fit into this holy time of year? Well, the word comes from Hallowed Evening and it is the eve of the holy All Saints Day. A characteristic of Pre-Christian celebrations was that they began the night before. I'm fascinated by the pre-Christian roots of some of our Christian Holidays. Many are close to the "Quarter Days" and the "Cross-quarter Days". The Quarter Days are the Solstices and Equinoxes and the Cross-quarter Days are the midway points between each Solstice/Equinox pair. All Saints Day is the Cross-quarter Day between the Autumnal Equinox and the Winter Solstice.

Do you believe that God was around and relating to humans before Moses codified the Law. Of course he was! The readings for this Solemnity of All Saints Sunday center around the work that God does to sanctify those who love him, and whom he loves. Those readings can be found at: http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/110109.shtml on the web, and in your Bible at:

Revelation 7.2-4, 9-14
Psalm 24.1bc-2, 3-4ab, 5-6
1 John 3.1-3
Matthew 5.1-12a

Our First Reading comes from the last book of the Bible this time. Normally we hear from prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah in the First Reading. Today we hear from St. John the Devine, to whom five books of the New Testament are attributed: the Gospel of John, the three Epistles of John, and the Book of Revelation. Revelation is the prophetic book in this list, and the First Reading customarily is prophetic.

The Revelation of John is a book that could keep a scholar busy all his life. If you were to Google "Revelation of St John the Devine", the readings proffered would keep you busy until your carpal tunnel acted up! There is some disagreement over authorship, but regardless of who actually wrote these words, they are the words of the Holy Spirit: 144,000 Jews, and a great multitude of believers from every nation, race, people and tongue will stand before the Lamb (Rev 7.4, 9). These people will have had their robes washed in the blood of the Lamb (v. 14). When is blood a detergent or whitening agent? When it is blood shed by Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God for the remission of sins.

And why is it important to have remission of sins? According to the Psalmist David in the Responsorial Psalm, only the "clean of hand and the pure of heart" can stand before the LORD (Ps. 24.3, 4). God owns the entire Universe, including everything we humans have access to (v. 1): the whole of the planet Earth, the entire Solar System through spacecraft, manned and robotic, and the vast Universe through the eyes of visible, infra-red, ultra-violet, and X-ray telescopes! Seeking knowledge of the whole of Creation is seeking the face of God (v. 6).

The Second Reading comes from a letter attributed traditionally to the same St. John who wrote the Book of Revelation. In it he says, "See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called his kids." Those of you who have kids, grandkids, great-grandkids, nieces, nephews, and so on... you know how easy it is to love kids. (Unless of course, the kids involved are teenages. Then it's hard, but still doable!) But we are God's kids, and he loves us, and he raises us. We don't yet know what we will be like when we are fully raised and full grown (v. 2). But we'll grow up just like him, our heavenly father. And we will someday be as clean of hand and as pure of heart as God himself (v. 3).

Now we come to the Gospel Reading. The famous, much quoted, and much loved "Beatitudes". This is the stuff that Jesus thought it was important to convey to the multitudes who came out to hear what he had to say. This is Jesus in a nutshell. Christianity in its purest, simplest form. Blessed are the poor in spirit (v. 3). Blessed are the mourners (v. 4). Blessed are the meek (v. 5). Blessed are the spiritually hungry (v. 6). Blessed are the merciful (v. 7). Blessed are the pure of heart (v. 8). (Where have we heard that before?) Blessed are the persecuted (v. 9).

Which one applies to you? Any? One? More than one? Well, if your robes are washed in the blood of the Lamb, at least the "pure of heart" one applies. Bottom line, none of these apply to any of us, but for Jesus and his act of love.

We are loved. We are loved! We don't need to be afraid. We are loved.

Randy Jones
"Those who cannot love say it's not humanly possible!"