All Saints 2019

Scientia Cordis

I recall one Sunday after church, a gentleman came into my office, sat down and declared more than ask, “Why do we pray for the dead? It’s not in the Bible!” I don’t recall what I said to him that day, but today I would say something like this: Because our mystical communion with the dead is what strengthens our virtue of hope that the falseness of this world is ultimately bounded by a greater truth and light despite the fact that the world rarely provides much evidence that such hope is justified. When we pray and reflect on the things they did in this life it inspires us to live lives of faith, hope and charity – even risking everything to bring greater truth and light to all persons, all creatures and creation itself.

For this reason our tradition sets aside three days to face into our mortality as a way of maintaining our hope – “the blessed hope of everlasting life…and when our mortal body doth lie in death, there is prepared for us a dwelling place eternal in the heavens.” [BCP 349] It is this hope, not love, that is unique to the Christian faith, for nearly all religions can and do instruct us on how to love others as well or even better than we do. Nor is our perspective on faith unique. As Fr. Sam Portaro observes, “It is the basis of all religion, and the very substance of government and economy, for no God can inspire, no government can rule, no commerce can work without genuine faith – faith in God’s authority to guide, faith in those who govern, faith in the value of goods and services. But where else is hope?” Where, indeed. [Sam Portaro, Brightest and Best, p 200]

So, All Hallows Eve (Oct 31) originated as a festival to use the powers of humor and ridicule to confront the power of, and our fear of, death. On All Saints Day (Nov 1) we reflect on the lives of those who embody faith, hope and charity and their remarkable deeds of triumph over the powers of darkness and the devil. And All Souls (Nov 2) we remember the great diversity of all who have gone before us as we again proclaim our aspirations, hope and expectations of a shared eternity, recalling that all the people of God in the early church were commonly referred to as “saints.” As the hymn proclaims in song, “there’s not any reason no, not the least, why we all shouldn’t be one too.” [Ibid p 199]

The book of Daniel is a book of tales and visions written several hundred years before Jesus. In chapter seven, Daniel has a dream, a vision: “I, Daniel, saw in my vision by night the four winds of heaven stirring up the great sea, and four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another.” [Daniel 7:1-3] Seeking clarification, Daniel learns it is about four kings rising up, but that ultimately, “… the holy ones of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom for ever—for ever and ever." These ‘holy ones of the Most High’ are the people like the rest of us. To the extent that Daniel describes a messiah, that messiah is the faithful people of God! That is the holy ones of the Most High are you and me! Written in a time of severe repression, and being forbidden to practice the religious rites and rituals of Israel while under foreign occupation, this vision among others in Daniel counters the depression of the people with the hope that ultimately, the people will one day, collectively, “possess the kingdom for ever.” And if that is not enough, the interpreter adds, “for ever and ever.” This is no doubt the equivalent of Buzz Lightyear’s, “To infinity and beyond!”

Jesus in Luke chapter 6, in his blessings and woes [v 20-31] encourages a similar hope as Israel is now under the domination of Caesar’s Rome. Only Jesus takes it all a step further: Blessed are you who are poor, hungry, weeping, and persecuted “on account of the Son of Man,” for yours shall be the kingdom. But Woe to those who are rich, full, happy and well regarded; you will now be poor, hungry, mourning and will now be regarded as false prophets in the reign of God. Once again, the people of God, not those presently in charge, will inherit everlasting life, once again sustaining the hope that all the people shall be the holy ones, the saints of God in this world and the next. And what matters most, Jesus continues, is to love God, love neighbor, love your enemies, and in your spare time be merciful as God is merciful!

After chasing after our fears of death, ghosts, goblins and the devils on All Hallows Eve, we reflect on the lives of those who in their time most embodied what it means to be “holy ones of the Most High" and saints of the church of Jesus Christ. Some of their names are familiar, like Martin Luther King, Jr, Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and Jonathan Myrick Daniels. Others, like William Laud, Richard Hooker, Evelyn Underhill, Elizabeth of Hungry and Hugh of Lincoln we need to read about to learn who they are and what they have contributed to human society. We would learn that Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, alone among all bishops in England, quelled anti-Semitic riots and killings in his diocese in the twelfth century. Elizabeth of Hungry, a wealthy princess, married well, and yet escaped the “woes” Jesus enumerates for the rich by giving all her wealth away: after her husband died she gave her dowry away as alms, sold her jewels to establish a hospital, opened the royal granaries in time of famine to feed the poor, and when her resources were reduced to subsistence she devoted herself to serving others until she died of exhaustion – ending a life of one who gave all she had as a “holy one of the Most High.”

Jean Vanier, was a Canadian Naval Officer, philosopher, theologian and founder of the L’Arche communities where he and others live together in homes as companions and care givers for those who have what he calls intellectual disabilities. Vanier began the first L’Arche home in1964, and lived in them until he died this past May. The experience has been healing for everyone involved. In one book called Becoming Human, Vanier describes some of what he has learned from those he serves about what the ancients call “Scientia Cordis,” science of the heart: “The science of the heart permits us to be vulnerable with others, not to fear them but to listen to them, to see their beauty and value, to understand them in all their fears, needs, and hopes, even to challenge them if need be…The mature heart does not seek to force beliefs on others; it does not seek to impose a faith. The mature heart listens for what another’s heart is called to be. It no longer judges or condemns. It is a heart of forgiveness. Such a heart is a compassionate heart that sees the presence of God in others. It lets itself be led by them into unchartered land. It is the heart that calls us to grow, to change, to evolve, and to become more fully human.”(Vanier, p.88)

I had my own experience of this mature heart one Sunday as guest preacher at St. Mark’s, Newark, NY, a parish that has a ministry to those who have intellectual disabilities and live in a nearby State Hospital. As I was preaching, there they were in the front row. Among them was Phyliss, a somewhat loud but loving woman. She was so proud as she told us she would soon receive an award for 25-years-service in a work program. Phyllis felt comfortable interrupting me when she had something to add to whatever I was saying. At one point when I was talking about the presence and grace of God in our lives, Phyllis told us all about being in the hospital the year before, and how it is true that God was with her through the whole ordeal of her surgery and recovery. I simply stopped and we listened to Phyllis for several minutes witness to the power of God in her life.

When she finished there really was nothing more I could say. I thanked her and encouraged us all to take a few moments of silence to take her words to heart. For whatever capabilities Phyllis may lack, hers is surely a mature heart, and a heart that rests in the very heart of God in Christ – she is one of the “holy ones of the Most High” from whom we all have something to learn.

Jesus encourages us to see that the communion of saints and Holy Ones extends far beyond the William Lauds and Richard Hookers of the church, far beyond the Desmond Tutus and Mother Theresas. To be human is to be merciful as God is merciful. To be human is to have a mature heart that reflects the very heart of Christ. To be human is to be one of God’s saints and holy ones.

Today we give thanks and praise for ALL the saints. Those who from their labors rest, and those who, like Phyllis, live among us even now. We give thanks for a tradition that takes three days each year to remember the great and broad diversity of saints among us now and throughout all time. We give thanks for everyone who in any way gives us a glimpse of what it means to be human, imago Dei, created in the image of God. We give thanks for ALL the saints. And we give thanks that “there’s not any reason no, not the least, why we all shouldn’t be one too.” And that is why we pray for the dead: so we can become human, sustain the virtue of hope, and live life with a mature heart. Amen.