Our Lord sits
on the mountain
to teach.
His disciples
are those who
have climbed after Him
scaling the rocky crags
against gravity,
against comfort,
against the better judgment
of others
to hear this Man teach.
Already,
they show themselves
to be blessed
for "blessed are those
who hunger and thirst
for righteousness' sake
for theirs is
the Kingdom of Heaven."
And how the disciples
demonstrate that!
In clambering uphill
they have demonstrated
their hunger and thirst
for the teaching of Christ
because they know
that what He teaches
is not just righteous
but Righteousness
itself.
Last week,
we recognise
Jesus as our King
and this week
we follow Him
and set ourselves apart for Him
from the World.
And if we set ourselves
apart from the world
for Righteousness' sake
God sets us apart for Him.
We become holy.
We become saints.
[PAUSE]
We are only as holy
as far as we are apart from
Sin, the World and the Devil.
Our salvation is
precisely the end of
our separation from God,
our return to the full health
that God has wanted for us
from Eternity.
Our Lord promises those
who hunger and thirst
for righteousness' sake
a place in His Kingdom
which St Peter describes as an
eternal Kingdom,
something that even
the prophet Daniel knows to be true.
Something is Eternal
if it is connected
with God's age.
Just as we have
the Stone Age,
the Iron Age,
the Bronze Age,
whatever is Eternal
is of the God Age.
Think about that,
because,
for God,
Time is not a limitation.
He is as present now
as He was a million years ago
and a million years to come.
All Time is present to God
at once.
And this is the Eternal life
that He offers in His Kingdom.
He offers His saints
to be of His Age,
Eternal,
not simply everlasting
but unbound to Time.
St John tells us
that we cannot understand
what we will be like
when we are in His Kingdom
but we will be like Him
because we will see Him as He is.
When Jesus says
that God is not the God of the dead
but of the living
He shows us that
Abraham,
Isaac,
Jacob,
Moses,
Elijah
and all the saints are still alive
and that Death
for the saints
is an event,
not a state of being.
The saints are not dead.
[PAUSE]
And, we know that St Peter says
the ears of the Lord
are open to
the prayers of the righteous,
and their prayers ascend
before God like incense.
St Jerome says,
"If the Apostles and Martyrs,
while still in the body,
can pray for others,
at a time when
they must still be anxious for themselves, how much more
after their crowns,
victories, and triumphs are won!"
We also no that
nothing in Heaven and Earth
or under the Earth,
not even life and death
can separate us
from the love of Christ.
And the saints are righteous
because they show
the love of Christ to us
even as Christ in Heaven
shows His love for us on earth.
[PAUSE]
So,
the saints are alive,
but are no longer
bound by Time and Space.
The saints still love us
because they are perfected
in the love of God,
and Love is something
that requires action.
The saints have passed
through death
but are neither
separated from God
nor from us
because nothing separates us
from the love of God.
The saints pray
just as they have
throughout their lives
hungering and thirsting
for Righteousness' sake.
Prayer is more than just words.
It is a communication
at a deeper level between
us and God
and
us and those who love God.
Likewise,
we pray for our departed loved ones
for their happiness in God.
This prayer is an expression
of our continued love
for those who have died.
The saints prayer for us
is an expression of
their continued love
for us who are yet to
undergo death.
This is true communion
for these prayers
bring us closer to God
because God is love.
This is precisely
the communion of the saints
a communion expressed
through mutual prayer
and, at its summit,
Christ Himself
in the Blessed Sacrament
of the altar.
[PAUSE]
We should rejoice
that we have such
a cloud of witnesses
cheering us on
bringing their concerns for us
to God,
and that our prayers
do the same
for those in need
whether living
or departed.
There will be those
who try to show us
that we are wrong,
who say the saints are dead
who say the dead heart nothing
who say that praying for the dead
does nothing.
But these are they
who do not understand prayer
who do not understand death
and who do not understand
that Love and Power are the same in God
and grow in the hearts
of those who hunger and thirst
for Righteousness' sake.
May Holy Mary,
Mother of God
and all the Holy Angels and Saints
pray for us
and may the souls
of the faithful departed
through the love of God
rest in peace.
Amen.
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