Perfectly Me!

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be perfect, be whole, compassionate, Jesus, Matthew, perfection, The Beatitudes, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Chapter five of Matthew’s Gospel starts with Jesus going up a hill, sitting down and giving a brilliant teaching that we call “The Beatitudes.” The lessons do not stop with the last “Blessed be…” however; there’s much more in that chapter to be ingested.

The last line of today’s teaching is one that we have attempted to find a more kindly or reasonable translation to explain. “Be perfect,” says Jesus, “as your heavenly Father is perfect.” We’ve tried on many synonyms to dress that line in a more realistic way. “Be compassionate,” we say (my personal favorite) or “Be whole.” You may have found your own translations that make it possible to hear and live without cringing at the seeming impossibility of coming close to what Jesus was proposing.

This morning, as I began to ruminate on it once again, I heard inside my head: “Be a perfect Lois…” That was a total surprise but it now seems to me the closest to what Jesus was asking. It isn’t a question of becoming like anyone else here on earth in order to achieve the “perfection” of God (“for God?). We just need to be the best of ourselves — loving and forgiving and accepting ourselves, being and giving the best of ourselves from our waking to our sleeping. I’m fairly certain God rejoices in that every day.

That may be just the thing for a Lenten practice, starting on this coming Wednesday!

Everyday Saints

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All Saints Day, Matthew, Revelation, saints, survive, The Beatitudes, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

On this feast of All Saints, I look at the time at the top of my computer screen as I type and find that it is – ironically – 9:11 a.m. Last night the winds were howling (How fitting for Halloween) and rain was pelting on our windows late into the night. Thinking of California as I lay awake, how I wished that we could stop the wind and send the rain to put out the fires there! I have a feeling of devastation that is different from 9/11/2001 but still catastrophic as I pray for the safety of our Sisters of the Los Angeles province and all of the people on the news whose houses have been reduced to ashes.

With all of that in mind, I turn to Scripture readings for the day where I find “These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress” from the Book of Revelation. That sounds a little like today so then I ask myself, “Who are the saints of today?” I am quick to answer: “First responders.” But I can’t stop there. The networks of people who step up at catastrophic moments are legion and then there are the everyday saints who respond to their neighbors as a matter of course, wherever there is a need. See today’s gospel for the Beatitudes as an explanation of that kind of sainthood. (MT 5: 1-12)

We have our favorite canonized saints, of course: Francis and Clare, Therese and Teresa…and even some named in our own lifetime now – Pope Saint John XXIII, etc. On this day, however, my prayer list is wide and long of good people that I celebrate and for whom I give praise and gratitude to God. Why not share their names if you know them and pray to or for them, as the case may be? Maybe you will hear your own name coming back at you from this “great cloud of witnesses.”

All Saints?

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canonization, darkness, God's children, heart of God, holy, John, Matthew, positive, psalm 24, Revelation, sainthood, saints, The Beatitudes, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I knew, of course, that yesterday was Halloween, i.e. “All Hallows’ Eve” but it’s still a bit of a shock this morning to wake up in November! Suddenly the trees are bare and the temperature outside is so low that one can hardly hold on any more to the season of autumn. It’s rather ironic that we celebrate many of our grandest holidays during the darkest time of the year. Perhaps it’s necessary that it be that way to keep us positive through the darkness. We begin today in Christianity with the feast of All Saints.

If we ask what constitutes “sainthood” we can expect many different answers. Dictionary definitions abound, some of which pose further questions like: Are Christians saints after they die or while they are still living? There is an answer to that for Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians whose Churches “require certain procedures before people can be officially named saints; this procedure is called canonization.” But there are two notes on the internet that make me happiest.

1. A statement: Saint is the French word for “holy.”
2. A question: How does the Bible define a saint?

If we look at today’s lectionary texts, each of the readings gives us an image that might move one to deeper pondering on the above question. The vision in the Book of Revelation has shining images of “a great multitude, wearing white robes and carrying palm branches in their hands…those who have survived the time of great distress…” (Ch. 7). Psalm 24 speaks of the people “who long to see God’s face, those whose hands are sinless and whose hearts are clean, who desire not what is vain.” John’s first letter tells us that “we are God’s children now” and that when all is revealed “we shall be like God…” (1 JN 2).

I thought the choice of gospel passage for this holy day was brilliant when I read the chosen text: Matthew 5:1-12, known to us as The Beatitudes. Coming to embody the qualities of those who are blessed listed in this passage must surely qualify us as “sainted” or “holy.” Just to read them quickly won’t get us there. We truly need to allow them to penetrate the deepest cave of our hearts and then to shine out of us in love that is humble, merciful, peacemaking…reflecting the love of God.

So perhaps as we move into this new month we can make a new (or renewed) determination to be those saints that may not yet be formally recognized but who are already held as such in the heart of God.