“Your Reward Will Be Great in Heaven” by Rev. Paul Berghout
Lectionary:
667
Piety
After this, I had a vision of a great multitude,
which no one could count,
from every nation, race, people, and tongue.
They stood before the throne and before the Lamb,
wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.
They cried out in a loud voice:
“Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne,
and from the Lamb.” Revelation 7:9-10
The reason the world does not know us
is that it did not know him.
Beloved, we are God’s children now;
what we shall be has not yet been revealed.
We do know that when it is revealed, we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is. 1 John 3:1C-2
“Rejoice and be glad for your reward will be great in heaven.” Matthew 5:12A
Study
All Saints Day reminds me of an old cartoon that shows a monk sitting at a big desk in a monastery. The monk is filing papers by placing them in one of three baskets on his desk. The first basket is marked, “Secular.” The second is labeled “Sacred.” The third is labeled “Top Sacred.”
We generally think of the whole concept of sainthood in moralistic terms. But, in reality, Saints are prayer-warriors first and foremost. Pope Benedict XVI cited Rufinus, who says: “The human race lives thanks to a few: Were it not for them the world would perish.”
This statement is a remarkable one, indeed. It shows the absolute need of someone who is within society who can show others that there is something more than this world and shows the importance of contemplation itself in keeping our mind straight.
Old-school religious life had a self-examination, which included the statement: “Without mental prayer and contemplation, including meditating on Scripture, all supernatural life is impossible. Consequently, have I made it a duty to meditate, not a mere reading but an intimate conversation with Our Lord, the Blessed Virgin or the Saints?”
When Pope Benedict XVI treated this issue of Saints sustaining the world in his document “Spe Salvi,”[i] he refers to the monastic tradition and St. Augustine. The Pope carefully related how this contemplative life is not opposed to any proper understanding of this world’s temporal life as per the Benedictine notion of “pray and work.”
Based on St. Thomas Aquinas, Josef Pieper said that you cannot understand politics without understanding the transcendent order and that you cannot have a healthy society in which there is only politics. There must be saints devoted to prayer and work.
You can be a saint working in the Federal Government.
Philippians 4:22 speaks of the saints from Caesar’s household. The Roman Empire employed most of these early Catholic-Christians as slaves or as freedmen working as petty clerks in the imperial service. However, a few did rise to very high positions of the government of Caesar. Most of them would have experienced domination, discrimination, dishonor during their employment. They knew they needed an interiorly fierce (militant!) spirit to be faithful to Christ.
The disciple must be inwardly good, not externally correct. Inner goodness, however, is not enough. It must lead to loving acts of service.
Saints also strive for purity of heart—As we hear in our Gospel today, “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.”
As Soren Kierkegaard observed, “Purity of heart is to will one thing.” A clean or pure heart is the sincere longing for the kingdom of God, the sense that ultimately this kingdom is our only goal in life. The language of purity in today’s Second Reading from 1 John is parallel to this, as we have the hope of holiness in our transformation in God. We seek righteousness to come into line with that purity which God already is. Then, our moral actions may be a part of what we mean by virtue but begin with a longing for God’s will being done on earth as it is in heaven.
Saint Thomas taught that the Kingdom of God consists of interior acts principally, “whence proceed interior justice and peace and spiritual joy.” He went on to explain, “It must be said that the happiness of man is operation” because “by one continuous act and eternal operation, the mind of man is turned to God.” Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God. It’s about the cleansing lens of perception.
Remember, Job 31:1. “I made an agreement with my eyes not to look at a young woman in a way that would make me want her. The Saints said during their time on earth, “Yes, Lord, I’m fiercely committed to purity, give me this verse of Job 31.1, so I can make it mine.” An eye covenant; the eye gate. It’s for men and women.
In St. Faustina’s Diary, Jesus tells her that “Great love can change small things into great ones, and it is only love which lends value to our actions. And the purer our love becomes, the less there will be within us for the flames of suffering to feed upon, and the suffering will cease to be a suffering for us; it will become a delight! By the grace of God, I have received such a disposition of heart that I am never so happy as when I suffer for Jesus, whom I love with every beat of my heart.” (#303, page 140)
In Christ, we can pray to the Saints based on friendship, example, and witness — in Augustine’s phrase, “lessons of encouragement” for the church militant. The term communion of saints means sharing and participating in holy things. It’s companionship, a “lively sense of the presence of the Spirit.”
Action
Pray to the Saints-- Evangelize! Catholics and Protestants both pray directly to God and also ask their fellow Christians to pray for them. The difference is that Catholics don’t restrict the term “Christians” to mean “only Christians on earth.” Intercessors don’t usurp Christ’s role. All Christians are intercessors who can pray for each other because the Church is the body of Christ.
God does not need us to pray to the Saints, but he is pleased by the Saints’ intercessory prayer when we ask them.
Why pray to Mary or the Saints when we can go straight to headquarters?
All Christians direct our prayer to the Father (he’s the departmental head at “headquarters”). We pray to the Father, through Christ, in the Holy Spirit, but it’s all directed to the Father.
God wants us to ask Him for things directly through Christ—but he also wants us to ask each other for prayers. St. Paul urges Christians to pray and intercede for all people, saying that intercessory prayer is “is good and pleasing to God our Savior (1 Tim. 2:1-4).
St. Paul also says, ‘Pray for me’ (Romans 15:30-32; 2 Cor. 1:10; Col. 1:4, 9-10). St. Paul could even say, “I remember you constantly in my prayers, night and day. I yearn to see you again” (2 Tim. 1:3).
So, God doesn’t “need” for us to ask Mary and the Saints to pray for us; rather, God is “pleased” by intercessory prayer (1 Tim. 2:1-4).
The Saints possess the Supreme Good--Heaven or the Beatific Vision, which is the supreme good, not perfect rest or inactivity. Heaven is not dull, but ultimate excitement and ecstasy.
The four creatures of the Apocalypse “rested not day and night, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty who was, and who is, and who is to come.” The Book of Revelation shows ceaseless activity in which choirs of angels, the ancients, and the multitudes adore God and sing His praises.
In our First Reading, the saints are wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. Palm branches are a sign of victory. Consider how the Catechism of Saint Pius X asks this question:
Q. How will the glory of the Saints be manifested in the General Judgment?
A. The glory of the Saints will be manifested in the General Judgment in this way, that many of them who died despised by the wicked shall be glorified before the whole world.
Inspired by the example and “lively sense of the presence of the Spirit” by the prayers of the intercession of the Saints for us, our upward calling is to become Saints in this life and forever in the next.
Amen.
1 comment:
Great quote from Rufinis
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