[stephenkhoo]

Thursday, 01 November, 2012, All Saints

THE CALLING OF THE SAINTS IS TO REGAIN THEIR FULL IDENTITY AS THE CHILDREN OF GOD

SCRIPTURE READINGS: REV 7:2-4, 9-14; JN 3:1-3; MT 5:1-12Why is All Saints a day of obligation?  To celebrate All Saints Day is to remind us of who we are and what we are called to be. Knowing one’s identity and one’s goal are preconditions to living a meaning and purposeful life on earth.However, very often we feel that we are not worthy to be saints.  We think that saints are extraordinary people with heroic virtues.  Sainthood is not meant for ordinary people. Indeed, unconsciously we express this diffidence, when we apologize for our weaknesses or human failures by saying, “I am not a saint.”  Yet the truth is that all of us are in principle saints and called to be saints. Indeed, in the early Church, every Christian is called a saint as we read in the epistles.  Hence, in order that we find this calling a realistic goal, we must clarify what it means to be a saint.What does it mean to be a saint?  In order to answer this question, it is perhaps better to ask another question, namely, what does it mean to be insane?  When a person is insane, we say, “He is out of his mind.”  In other words, he is not aware of his identity.  He is behaving abnormally.  He acts in such a way that his doing does not flow from his being.  He lives in illusion and hallucination.  In a nutshell, he has a false assumption of his identity.However, not only is an insane person not aware of his real identity, he also not does not know his calling and destiny.  An insane person acts incoherently.  He has no goals and orientation in life; or rather he has unrealistic dreams.  He builds castles in the air and most of all, lives in them.  If this is what it means to be insane, then the corollary of being a saint is simply to be sane. A saint is someone who is rational, conscious, and is aware of his identity and real calling.  To be a saint therefore means that we must first know who we are and then what we are called to be.  A saint in this sense is one who is in possession of himself.What then is our identity? St John urges us: “Think of the love that the Father has lavished on us, by letting us be called God’s children; and that is what we are.”  So, this is our real identity.  We are God’s children.  But unfortunately most of us forget that we are God’s children.  If we do then we would not have lived as if we were orphans or illegitimate children, or as if we have no Father and no brothers or sisters.  To be fully aware of our dignity as the children of the Father implies that we would act accordingly.What then is the reason for this forgetfulness?  It is because of sin, which brings about separation and alienation.  Estranged from the source of life, our origin and our sonship, we forget that we are the children of God. Consequently, we behave as if we are children of Satan, “possessed by him.”  But in reality, we who have been created in the image of God are destined to be His children.  This explains the confusion in us with regard to our identity.  Deep within, the Spirit reminds us that we are the sons and daughters of God even when we behave like rebellious children.  As a result we have a split personality, so much so that some of us act like insane and incoherent people.So the way to sainthood is simply to recover our sanity, that is, our consciousness of our identity as the children of God.  The call to holiness is simply a call to be holistic and focused.  How is this possible? St John tells us that if we want to recover our image, then we must “be as pure as Christ.”  As children of God, our life must be that of the life of God Himself.  Of course, to know our full sonship and identity, we can only know it through Christ.  To know Him is to know the kind of life we should live.  When St John remarked that “because the world refused to acknowledge him, therefore it does not acknowledge us”, he is implying that if others could not see us as children of God, it is because they do not know Christ.  The implication is that the knowledge of Christ is necessary to enable us to see our true sonship.What then concretely is the life of Christ, which is supposedly the life of the saint? It is summed up in the “Beatitudes” which is a summary of the attitudes of Jesus to life.  In these beatitudes Jesus shares with us the way, the blueprint to authentic living as children of God.  Very briefly, the beatitudes are “be-attitudes.”  They teach us how to be with regard to our lives as followers of Christ, in our relationship with ourselves and with others.  They show us how to be with respect to ourselves; the kind of attitude we must adopt with regard to wealth, the things of this earth, hunger, famine, suffering, injustices and misunderstandings.  We are called in these different areas of life to grow in humility, docility, patience, compassion and charity, which preclude justice.With respect to others, we are called to transcend persecutions and oppositions in our lives. Like the early Christians we are called to purify ourselves and strengthen our faith in Christ through these very persecutions.  In this way, we would mature in Christ.  From the beatitudes, we learn how to live as a true son and daughter of God.  That is why those who follow the beatitudes already live a blessed life, a saintly life, and have a foretaste of our ultimate calling in life.From the aforesaid, it is clear that the paradox of our Christian identity is that our identity actually is also our goal.  What we are called to be actually has begun in what we already are.  In other words, to live the life of Christ actually is to live the life of God.  It is to share in the divine life.  Hence, St John said, “My dear people, we are already the children of God but what we are to be in the future has not yet been revealed; all we know is, that when it is revealed we shall be like him because we shall see him as he really is.”  In saying this, John is saying that the fullness of the dignity of the children of God is to share in the fullness of love and knowledge. This is the meaning of “seeing” God. In theological terminology, we speak of the beatific vision. We must take note that when St John speaks about revelation, it is in connection with seeing God “as he really is.”However, because we have not yet become who we really are, as the children of God, we would have to wait until that day when we regain our full identity as God’s children, made in His image and likeness before we can fully grasp and share in the fullness of the life of God.  Until that day when we are like Him, which presupposes we have put on Christ, our life is incomplete.  In the meanwhile, this life is beyond our imagination because we cannot fully grasp what it means to be totally in the presence of God, sharing in His image and likeness since all that we have experienced is only a foretaste, not yet the ultimate.However, we know that such a calling to be faithful to our identity as children of God is not easy, especially in the face of temptations and oppositions.  Indeed, this was the experience of the early Christians during the time of St John.  The Good News is that living the life of Christ, which certainly demands some co-operation on our part, is the sincerity of wanting to purify ourselves to be like Christ. However, this power of transformation and purification is not a matter of an act of the will but rather it is the power of God.This is what the first reading from the book of revelation wants to assure us.  So the Good News is that we can have hope of a certain victory in the end.  In spite of our weaknesses and sinfulness, we know that if we trust and rely on Jesus, He will bring victory to us all.  After all, the symbolic number of 144,000 means that all Christians who have been given the seal on their foreheads as servants of God at their baptism are like the Israelites who were the chosen people of God.  In putting His seal of possession on us, Christians, we know that we belong to God forever.  For this reason, we speak of the indelible character of the sacrament of baptism.But this hope is not only for Christians but also for the many numerous people as well, “from every nation, race, tribe and language “who are “impossible to count.”  So in the final analysis, the victory of the saints is really the victory of Christ. It is through the power and strength of Christ alone that we can achieve that victory.  With this hope in the power of Christ’s victory of sin and death in His passion and resurrection, we can find consolation that if we cooperate sincerely with Christ, He will empower us to share in His life and include us among the communion of saints.