Today we celebrate All Souls Day. In Her “universal call to holiness,” the Church challenges us by asking, “What must we to do in order to join the company of the saints in heaven (Lumen Gentium, 40)?” That’s a powerful question in need of a powerful answer. Good thing our Lord Jesus is here to provide us a road map to holiness. How convenient! St. Augustine, in his Commentary on the Sermon On The Mount, tells us that the Beatitudes are “the perfect standard of the Christian Life” (Commentary, 1.1) and I don’t think it is an accident that the Beatitudes, that litany of blessings from the Sermon on the Mount, is our Gospel reading.
What keeps entering into my mind while praying over the Gospel is its ordinariness. Christ uses vivid but simple images and language. Christ tells us for example, “Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.” That’s it. In this simple language I think of our community of saints. We celebrate the saints because they celebrate us. I think it is their ordinariness that makes them so revered. Yes, some saints seem holier than thou, as if they must glow in the dark if they entered a room, but let us not put them on such pedestals that we think we can’t reach them! We must never think that their examples of holiness are unattainable. It may seem daunting, but let St. Augustine instruct us, let us look to the Beatitudes.
The Palestinian Christian Archbishop Elias Chacour follows St. Augustine’s thought process of viewing the Beatitudes as a guide rather than just a speech or series of declarations. Archbishop Chacour prays deeply, returning to the original, central word of “blessed.” He writes:
“Blessed” is the translation of the word MAKARIOI, used in the Greek New Testament. However, when I look back further to Jesus’ Aramaic, I find that the original word was ASHRAY, from the verb YASHAR. ASHRAY does not have this passive quality to it at all. Instead, it means “to set yourself on the right way for the right goal; to turn around, repent; to become straight or righteous.” When I understand Jesus’ words in the Aramaic, I translate like this: Get up, go ahead, do something, move, you who are hungry and thirsty for justice, for you shall be satisfied. Get up, go ahead, do something, move, you peacemakers, for you shall be called children of God. To me, this reflects Jesus’ words and teachings much more accurately. I can hear him saying, “Get your hands dirty to build a human society for human beings; otherwise, others will torture and murder the poor, the voiceless, and the powerless.” Christianity is not passive but active, energetic, alive, going beyond despair (We Belong to the Land, 143-4).”
So I guess the Beatitudes become our new ‘To Do’ list, the point being there are things to “get doing.” We must get up, get going, get moving. There is a very real hurting world out there that needs our help. Should we strive to follow our instruction manual known as the Beatitudes, you may find yourself on the other side of a pedestal reference and be a saint. May today’s saints be our example and let us pray to them for courage and strength. Have a blessed week.
I’ll be seeing you,
Elliot Guerra