Morning Devotion for the Season after Pentecost
November 1, 2021
Feast of All Saints
Invitatory
“Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.”
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end.
Amen.
Praise ye the Lord.
The Lord's Name be praised.
Reading: Wisdom 3:1-9
But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God,
and no torment will ever touch them.
In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died,
and their departure was thought to be an affliction,
and their going from us to be their destruction;
but they are at peace.
For though in the sight of men they were punished,
their hope is full of immortality.
Having been disciplined a little, they will receive great good,
because God tested them and found them worthy of himself;
like gold in the furnace he tried them,
and like a sacrificial burnt offering he accepted them.
In the time of their visitation they will shine forth,
and will run like sparks through the stubble.
They will govern nations and rule over peoples,
and the Lord will reign over them for ever.
Those who trust in him will understand truth,
and the faithful will abide with him in love,
because grace and mercy are upon his elect,
and he watches over his holy ones.
Meditation – Peter Vanderveen
It’s difficult to escape the immediate presumption that a saint is a kind of hero, someone who is particularly courageous in faith. Such exceptionalism is appealing. We are sometimes urged to think that it’s inspiring; the higher calling to which we might -- or decidedly might not -- aspire as well. For saints so imagined are those who maintain their faith in the face of great challenge and danger. They stand up against opposing powers, putting themselves at risk. They aren’t mere believers, like the many who may be willing to concede that there may be a God or may allow that their faith may ask them to change what they do or how they form their character. Saints leave no room for waffling or ambiguity. They live ablaze in commitment. And, thus, they’re chiefly defined by how they are not like the rest of us.
This is all the more accentuated, too, when exceptionalism is so lauded in general. We praise geniuses and trailblazers and entrepreneurs. We identify ourselves by means of sports superstars, wearing their names on our backs. We have an endless appetite for celebrities of all stripes. We feel greater than we are by association with those who are powerful or influential or extraordinarily talented. Why not include saints among these?
This is tempting, but it isn’t quite right. Because this way of understanding the saints places the emphasis on individual persons: somehow, we assume, they have excelled where others haven’t. But what makes a saint a saint isn’t individual effort or personal achievement. It’s just the opposite. Saints are those for whom God has -- somehow -- become overwhelmingly present. Their lives bear witness to something other than themselves. They aren’t enthusiasts or pied pipers or proven miracle workers; they are simply those who -- somehow -- are able to reside within the divine, whether by their own intention or not.
In the reading from Wisdom, the “souls of the righteous” are, surprisingly, not the subject of attention. They are, in fact, only the object of God’s “grace and mercy.” God is the one who redeems. God is the one who sets the condition of the “truth.” God is the one who repairs all the wounds of our divisions, which result from our individual need to be somebody over and above others. Saints, however, don’t have to scramble for such a position. They trust something greater: God is in the process of bringing everything to fruition.
It’s a simple conviction, but it changes everything about our world and our lives. For it opens both to the freedom of an immense joy.
The Lord's Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
