All Saints’ Sunday
Daniel
7: 1 -3, 15 – 18
Psalm 149
Ephesians 1: 11 – 23
Luke 6: 20 – 31
This is the
homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker on
Sunday, November 6, 2022.
“A SAINT-OR-
A ‘NICE PERSON’?”
(Homily text: Luke 6: 20 – 32)
This morning, we alter our
normal liturgical schedule a bit, setting aside the appointed readings for the
Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 27), to observe All Saints’
Sunday. All Saints’ Day falls on November 1st each year, but it is
one of the few holy days in the calendar that may be moved to the Sunday
following its appointed day
Each year here at St.
John’s, we offer members of our faith community the opportunity to list names
of those who’ve been an influence of some sort or another in their lives on our
All Saints’ Sunday list. As we look at the names of those we’ve placed on the
list, perhaps it might be good to reflect on the values and the character of
those we’ve chosen to remember.
Such a reflection brings
to mind the following question: What is it in the character of those we’ve
recalled at this time of year that made them a saint (or a saintly person), and
not simply a “nice person”?
It seems as though there
is a difference between being a person who shows forth in their lives (in some
way) godly values above and beyond the characteristics of being a
well-conditioned person with good social graces.
To be sure, there’s some
overlap between saintliness and goodness. We think of St. Paul’s list of the
fruits of the (Holy) Spirit, which he tells us, are: Love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control.[1] Many, if not most or all, of these qualities are markers of a person who
exhibits “niceness”.
Perhaps Paul’s mentioning
that the Spirit is the one who grants this list of fruits might lead us to
understand that a saint is a person in whom God has been working. So the
process of growing into sainthood is one which begins inside of us, in our
hearts and minds, a process which then works its way out into the way in which
we speak and act. The implication of this process is that God works within us something
we cannot do ourselves.
Now, if we turn the tables
the other way, and take a look at what constitutes “niceness”, we could come to
the conclusion that a person can cultivate such qualities without God’s help.
Such a process then becomes one which reverses the inside-to-the-outside
process of growing into sainthood, for this process begins on the outside and
works its way inside to some degree. Understanding the difference between
saintliness and niceness might cause us to remember that, ultimately, it is God
alone who can change the human heart and mind. True integration of our inner
selves and our outer selves can only be done with divine help and guidance.
Our prayer might be:
“Come, Holy Spirit, and enliven within us the image of Christ, that we may show
forth in our lives the light of the redeeming One. Amen.”
[1] See Galatians 5:22 – 23.
