"For All the Saints"

Perhaps you may be familiar with the comic strip, “Calvin and Hobbes”, which follows the irreverent adventures of a young boy and his companion tiger, Hobbes.

In the strip, everyone sees Hobbes as a stuffed toy tiger, while for Calvin, Hobbes is not only his soulmate but a living and thoughtful companion.

Sometimes I wonder if our annual celebration of All Saints is the time when stuffed saints leave their places in heaven and become real and alive, very much like Hobbes but only for a few hours on Sundays.

All Saints, at least in our traditional episcopal understanding looks almost as kind of Brigadoon, the enigmatic Scottish city which comes alive once every hundred years.  Save that our own Holy Brigadoon, appears once every year.

One of the challenges – among many! – of being episcopalian within what it is known as the Anglican Communion, is that we really don’t know how to deal with the saints the other three hundred sixty-four days of the year.  Or three hundred sixty-three if the church is lucky enough to have a saint as a patron. 

One the one side, our protestant heritage pushes us to shelve the old folks for good until after we all meet with them beyond the Pearly Gates.  On the other side, our catholic heritage pulls us to make them as real in everyday life as the tiger Hobbes was to Calvin.

It is no help that over the centuries the notion of “Triumphant Church” – the saints now in glory eternal – and “Militant Church” – all of us battling against the challenges of ordinary church – has crept in in a way that further separate us.  They are there.  We are here.

So, today, allow me to suggest a more balanced view.  Now, let me be clear – It is my own understanding.

Then, first let me try to answer the question, “Who are the saints?”  Well, according to the Scriptures all of us are saints of God.  Time after time, in the Scripture, the members of the church are called saints, as in today’s Second Lesson.

And mind you – This is not our doing.  We are called saints not based on our great accomplishments or on the accolades of the few or the multitudes but it is grounded in the goodness of a God who choose, out of nowhere, to call them and us into his fellowship – long before they or us became a single strand of DNA.

But, over the long story of the Christian faith, the church decided to underscore the life of some women and men because in their lives the light of Christ shone more clearly.  Those are, perhaps, whom we call Saints, we capital S. 

These Saints, with a capital S, serve as beacons reminding us of the possibilities that arise when ordinary people respond eagerly to God’s call.  Their stories inspire us not only to admire their faith but to recognize that holiness is accessible to each one of us.  

Through their lives, we glimpse the transformative power of grace and are encouraged to seek that same light and to let it shine for all the world to see the goodness of God.

Second, then, “Do the saints pray?”  Well, again the Scriptures are clear that saints – all the saints, with lower case and capital “S” – are called to praise God.

In the Psalms we read about the angels and archangels who sing the praises of God. And every Sunday, when we celebrate the Eucharist, we join with them in proclaiming the glory of God’s name.

In the great vision of the end of times, in Revelation, we read that in the eternal worship of God there was not only praise but prayer.  There, in the presence of God, those who had gone before us pleaded for justice in the world.

Also, in the vision describing the incense as the prayers before the throne is not clear if the prayers which were offered to God were only our prayers of those of them as well. Anyway, in the presence of God Almighty there is praise, but there is also prayer.

And what about us?

I don’t know about you, but looking at my human condition, as the hymn says, “I’m standing in the need of prayer”.  Never mind my mother, or my father or my brother, I am in the need of prayer!

So, as I consider these lines, and as for it what concerns me, I would welcome the prayers of all, here in church, at home, in the car, or in heaven.  And, let me tell you, in heaven my name will never fall off the prayer list!  And prayer not only goes on now but will go on for the eternity.

I know that my Intercessor, with capital “I” is none other than my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  So, if He prays for me, why would I need someone else’s prayer.  Well, because this is what we do on our side of heaven.  We never skip the Intercessions, or rebuff those who ask for our prayers because Jesus already intercedes for them and for us.

We know that the Scripture urges us to “pray without ceasing”.  Note that St Paul doesn’t say “Pray without ceasing until you leave this world.”  He just says, “Never stop praying.”

So, at least to me it is comforting to know that this living connection is not limited by time or space.  Whether here on earth or in the company of those who have gone before us, the communion of saints assures me that I will never be alone.

For their fellowship transcends our earthly limitations, reminding us that prayer is a bridge connecting us with believers past, present, and future.

In other words, it would be sad that the communion of the saints turns up to be a kind of “brigadoonish” fiction which appears once every year or a cartoonish belief, but a reality upon which I can rely on – even when I less deserve it.

The Scripture describes our brothers and sisters who now are in the presence of God as the Great Cloud of Witnesses who are cheering us in our race. 

So, today as you hear the bells during the Eucharistic Prayer, cheer up!  Ringing bells during a race often marks the final lap or in biking a special “prime” lap for prizes.  So, let the joyful ringing of the bells be a reminder of the Great Cloud of Witness ringing bells encouraging us on our race.  

My friends, today as we remember the saints of God, past, present, and future, let us be reassured by God’s mercy and grace and in God’s loving and welcoming embrace.

And, let us continue to lift one another up in faith, knowing that we are united not only by our friendship and our bonds in the Body of Christ, which is the church, but also by the shared hope that comes from our connection to the Great Cloud of Witness, all those who have gone before us..

Fr. Gustavo