Just a Word...All Saints Day...November 1, 2025
Who hasn’t heard the admonition, “Do as I say, not as I do”? If not in so many words, then perhaps by the example of some authority figure, be that a parent, a teacher, a politician.
Having exposed the hypocrisy of the religious leaders last week, this week’s Gospel has Jesus speaking directly to his followers about they way they are to live, not by following their duplicitous leaders, but by allowing his own example to guide the living of their lives. Jesus gives them, and us, guideposts to help on the journey, the marvelous Beatitudes.
Through these nine teachings, Jesus is calling the people to a new way of being and of worshipping, in contrast to the lessons from those leaders who did not practice what they preached, but who, crippled by their shortcomings and failures, were consumed with the external, the pursuit of social standing. Jesus, in appealing to the internal, the inner life of virtue, of caring for the well-being of others, calls forth the religious imagination of the crowd, inspiring them to envision a more compassionate, inclusive and non-judgmental way of being; one in which, in the words of Pope Francis... “true happiness is being with the Lord and living for love...blessed are the simple, the humble who make room for God, who are able to weep for others and for their own mistakes, who remain meek, fight for justice, are merciful to all, safeguard purity of heart, always work for peace and abide in joy, do not hate and even when suffering, respond to evil with good...this is how the saints are: like everyone, they breathe air polluted by the evil there is in the world, but on the journey they never lose sight of Jesus’ roadmap.”
The roadmap set out by Jesus today, if we choose to follow it, will also result in externals, albeit of a far different sort from those of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Beatitude living has the power of goodness within it, a goodness that can change the world into one more reflective of the kingdom Jesus preached. And isn’t that what we all aspire to, a sharing in the flow of grace from God to all, the establishment of a community which honors the covenant with God to love God and neighbor, and to replace the quest for social standing with the goal of standing shoulder to shoulder in solidarity in the pursuit of the common good?
This is a tall order, I know, but one that is worth our efforts. Fr. Jim Martin says, “Sanctity is God’s goal for us. But there is something else waiting for us, something the saints show with their lives. It’s something you don’t hear much about in religious circles: happiness.” The Greek word for “Blessed: as in the Beatitudes, has another meaning: happy...So, happy are the peacemakers. Happy are the merciful, Happiness awaits those on the road to sanctity.”
As we follow Jesus’ roadmap, will we always succeed? Of course not, we are human after all. But when we fall short, the God of seventy-seventh chances will pick us up, dust us off, and inspire us to start all over again.