In our home we have pictures
and items that warmly remind us of some of the people, places, and events
dear to us. To be sure, we could get along without such reminders, but
they do enrich our lives. However, it would be a bit peculiar, if we spent
an inordinate time gazing at any of them, or chatting with photographs
of beloved people whether alive or dead. An obsession with pictures or
items is at best unhealthy and at worst delusional. Moreover, too many
of them would become clutter.
Last Monday was
the annual Feast of All Saints, and today, the first Sunday following,
the Church’s
calendar encourages its Sunday observance, too. Originally All Saints’ Day
was set aside to honor all martyrs, and it soon evolved as a commemoration
of all the departed, canonized Saints. At the time of the Reformation,
the New Testament understanding of "saint" as including all believers
living and dead was recovered, and among some Churches the feast be¬came
a celebration of the unbro¬ken unity of the whole church – the “Communion
of Saints.” (Some observances, however, focus only on the departed.)
Needless to say, at no time were saints, however defined, regarded as perfect
Christians, but as individuals on a pilgrimage toward the full life in
Christ represented by the spirit of the Beatitudes read in tonight’s
Gospel. Like pictures and items around a home, a Saint’s life might
serve as a reminder, especially as an inspiring example of
a particular style of Christian commitment.
Unfortunately, the whole
custom has developed into a complex, often superstitious, Disney-like enterprise.
The most familiar is the named Saints canonized by the Roman Catholic Church
and followed by many other Christians as well. There are now at least 20,000
such Saints. From a 21st century viewpoint, many of them appear to have
been quite mentally ill. Roman Catholic theologian Richard McBrien has
noted that many, perhaps most, never entered a committed loving relationship
with another human being, raised a family, or held an ordinary job. The
current pope has canonized or placed in the canonization process nearly
500 new Saints, usually contemporary martyrs, clergy, monks and nuns -
at least a couple of whom may have never actually existed according to
Roman Catholic historians. The majority of these Saints are so removed
from our lives that, for the most part, we would not value them as realistic
models for our lives; indeed, they are irrelevant. (By the way, The Episcopal
Church has no canonization process as such, though, through a process of
our triennial General Convention, we do add to our calendar the names of
departed, exemplary men and women without any “Saint” prefix.)
A good number
of Christians go far beyond the inspirational function of canonized Saints
by praying
to them and asking favors of them, such that their obsession
yields a whole range of junior gods. And, then there is the matter of
certain relics:
supposed pieces of Saints’ corpses to be venerated, a damnable practice
unworthy of even a Disney classification.
In the Massachusetts Episcopal
church where I was baptized and active for all my pre-college years, we
observed none of the individual Saint’s days, though we did celebrate
the annual All Saints’ Day. Our rector was suspicious of what could
easily become gadgets, superstitions, and clutter interfering
with, even becoming substitutes for, the worship of God alone. A significant
number
of people involved in all religious bodies seem eager to elaborate,
complicate, and even distort, their relationships with God and their faith
community
by add-ons. When such trappings truly enhance their
basic religious commitments, they can be awe-inspiring! However, when any of them becomes
a focus, it
becomes an idol, a false mini-god.
Like my first rector,
I am very reluctant to make church life (especially worship) fussy, complicated,
or mere entertainment. During my 41 ordained years, I have participated
in some Services with so much extra “stuff” that the liturgical
ministers were not worshipping; they were just performing. I am so aware
of humanly designed hazards to keeping the related Commandments recorded
in our Prayer Book (pp. 317f.) “God spake these words, and said:
I am the Lord thy God who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of
the house of bondage. Thou shalt have none other gods but me. Thou
shalt not make to thyself any graven image, nor the likeness of any thing
that
is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water
under the earth; thou shalt not bow down to them, nor worship them.” It seems
to me that our love for God involves the prudent keeping of
these perceptive Commandments. Because you and I desire to worship God
with due reverence,
we need to be on guard against the twisting of any religious
practices or items into more than wholesome reminders which rightly evoke
the real
presence of the Godly in our midst and within our lives.
For me, the commemoration
of All Saints is a time when I am reminded of fallible, faithful fellow
Christians, living and dead - a few known to me, most unknown. It is an
acknowledgement of my fellowship with all faithful Christians past and
present, both the famous and those known to God alone. A pause to remember
them, and myself, as the “Communion of Saints” warms my heart,
opens my mind, strengthens my will, and enriches my life.