Sermon for the Sunday in the Octave of All Saints
Someone one sneezes.
What do you say?
Why?
[PAUSE]
When you say, "Bless you!"
you are essentially asking
for God to bless the person
and prevent them from
falling ill.
That seems straightforward.
That's not the same word
that we hear Jesus say
in the Beatitudes.
When He says,
"Blessed are the pure in heart,"
that's not the same as
"The one who sneezed is blessed."
Can you hear the difference?
How is it different
to be blessed when you sneeze
from being blessed for being
pure in heart?
And what does all this
to do with the Saints?
Always go to the Greek!
In the Greek,
to bless someone
usually means
to speak well of,
to praise,
to wish good things.
But when Our Lord says,
"Blessed are the pure in heart..."
He's using the word meaning
"Happy!"
Actually, if we're being very picky,
Our Lord doesn't actually say
"Blessed are the pure in heart..."
He says,
"Happy the pure in heart...!"
Can you hear it? It's stronger.
To be pure in heart is to be happy.
To be a peacemaker is to be happy.
To hunger and thirst after righteousness
is to be happy.
To be persecuted for righteousness' sake
is to be happy!
To be persecuted is to be happy?
What's gone wrong there?
[PAUSE]
Nothing's gone wrong.
Look at the saints.
Are they not happy?
You might say,
"well, they weren't happy
when they were being crucified
or chopped up
or burned."
The trouble is
that to say that
misses the force
of what Our Lord
is telling us.
Among the saints
are many martyrs
who indeed suffer
horrible torments for Christ.
But their suffering
is confined to this Earthly realm.
Their full selves,
their happy selves
are in Eternity
where in some sense,
they have always been.
Their happiness -
our happiness -
is God.
It's not that our suffering on Earth
doesn't matter to God.
It's that He perfects our suffering
and gives it purpose
to be close to Him.
His suffering is part of ours
and our suffering is part of His.
God stands waiting for us
at the end of our Earthly lives
in order to give us Eternal lives.
It is in our Eternal lives
that our Earthly lives
are not destroyed
but are perfected.
Grace perfecting nature!
If we hunger and thirst after righteousness
then that is our Eternal life
poking through
into our Earthly life.
If we are persecuted for righteousness' sake
that is our happiness
soaking through into
the little life we know now.
The lives of the saints
are full of these acts
and its how we know them
to be saints.
We see the fruit of their labours
and by their fruits
shall we know them.
We recognise the saints
because through their
purity in heart
we see God's light shining.
[PAUSE]
Some may ask us,
where are your saints today?
Whose lives shine forth light?
Elizabeth Barton
who challenges even kings
to seek righteousness?
Fr Alfred Patten,
restorer of the shrine of Our Lady?
Bishop Albert Chambers
the one who defies
unjust rules
to ensure that the sacraments
are preserved?
And then there's you?
Why not you?
Bless you.
