All Saints 2006 - Dom Peter
[Rev 7: 2-4, 9-14
1 John 3: 1-3
Matt 5: 1-12a]
For the past several years, the monks have made a real effort at gardening. As we’ve grown larger as a community, we’ve become more and more proficient. This year, we have finished most of the harvest, and that included about two hundred pounds of potatoes, rows and rows of squash, tomatoes and all kinds of other products. I love this time of year for a number of reasons, but part of it surely is the joy of the harvest. In the midst of this plenty, we must of course remember to give thanks to God, who gives the growth, and to be generous with what we have, since this pleases God.
Life is mysterious: we can help life along, but we humans are utterly unable to make non-living things alive. We rely rather on God’s mysterious gift of vitality. We study life, to increase our crops, to grow new varieties of vegetables and so on, but it all depends finally on God.
At Mount Sinai, God Himself got personally involved with the life cycle of the seasons, at least with regard to the people of Israel. The Canaanites, who lived in the Holy Land before Israel, worshipped fertility gods to increase their crops, but these were harmful idols, not the Living God of Abraham. To protect the people against this temptation, God instructed Moses to bring the Israelites together three times a year: at sowing, at first-fruits and at the harvest. These three festive celebrations became Passover, Pentecost and the Festival of Booths. Passover and Pentecost are associated with two foundational events in the life of Israel: the crossing of the Red Sea and the giving of the Law on Sinai. The Feast of Booths, originally connected with the march through the desert (since they slept in tents), came to be associated with two other events, the first being the rebuilding of the temple of God after the Babylonian Exile: the high priest Joshua and Zerubabbel (the heir to the throne) offered the first sacrifices in the new temple on this feast. The second historical event was the re-consecration of the temple after its defilement by the Greeks. During the second century before Christ, the Greek king Antiochus Epiphanes set up a statue of Zeus in the temple and defiled it during the Festival of Booths. After a fierce war of two years, the Jews, led by the Maccabee brothers, were able to drive the Greeks out and to offer sacrifice again for the very same festival.
The book of Leviticus instructs those celebrating booths to carry palm branches in honor of God. This is what we see the souls of the just doing in heaven in today’s first reading: carrying palm branches and celebrating the Festival of Booths. The celebration of the march in the desert, the harvest and the renewed temple has been reinterpreted again: now the souls are following the Lamb, whereas before they had followed the pillar of cloud. They are going to their true home, rather than an earthly Holy Land. And they are going to celebrate the consecration of the new temple of God, which is all the saints joined in the Body of Christ, indwelt by the Holy Spirit. God has purified this temple once and for all by the blood of Jesus Christ our Savior, and so the souls are clothed in white to symbolize the final and decisive defeat of Satan and of sin and death. This is the true ‘harvest of souls’. We see in our lives in Christ, we follow the plan of the seasons, as well as the history of Israel. In baptism, our Passover, we are planted: like a seed dying in the earth, we die to sin and rise to Christ. In our confirmation, we receive the Holy Spirit as at Pentecost: we sprout up with the first fruits of new life, beginning to mature into fullness. But while we still are on this earth, we do not yet attain to full maturity. That must wait for our final Passover, our final participation in the Paschal mystery, our own suffering and death in the body.
We often fear death, we fear suffering. Today, we celebrate the triumph of all those who have gone before us marked with the seal of faith. We see that to reach our final happiness, our full joy, we must consent to endure what John calls “the time of great distress.” We have certainly been warned: but today, the celebration of All Saints, we should take heart! We should take heart and rejoice in all those who have made it through this harvesting and now enjoy blessedness, happiness, peace and friendship with all men and with God. The promise of the gospel is not vain: the hope that we feel, the hunger and thirst for justice, fellowship and love is already being satisfied in the lives of the saints. And what a harvest it is: a great multitude which no one can count! Surely among these are persons like ourselves: on earth they struggled with doubt, they struggled with fear and with a variety of sins, both public and hidden. Yet in Christ, they are triumphant in the end. Let us be encouraged by the help given to the saints and by the prayers that they now make on our behalf. Let us today renew our desire for holiness, purity of heart, for meekness and mercy. See what love the Father has bestowed on us! Let us praise Him together in the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ to Whom be glory and honor forever. Amen.
1 John 3: 1-3
Matt 5: 1-12a]
For the past several years, the monks have made a real effort at gardening. As we’ve grown larger as a community, we’ve become more and more proficient. This year, we have finished most of the harvest, and that included about two hundred pounds of potatoes, rows and rows of squash, tomatoes and all kinds of other products. I love this time of year for a number of reasons, but part of it surely is the joy of the harvest. In the midst of this plenty, we must of course remember to give thanks to God, who gives the growth, and to be generous with what we have, since this pleases God.
Life is mysterious: we can help life along, but we humans are utterly unable to make non-living things alive. We rely rather on God’s mysterious gift of vitality. We study life, to increase our crops, to grow new varieties of vegetables and so on, but it all depends finally on God.
At Mount Sinai, God Himself got personally involved with the life cycle of the seasons, at least with regard to the people of Israel. The Canaanites, who lived in the Holy Land before Israel, worshipped fertility gods to increase their crops, but these were harmful idols, not the Living God of Abraham. To protect the people against this temptation, God instructed Moses to bring the Israelites together three times a year: at sowing, at first-fruits and at the harvest. These three festive celebrations became Passover, Pentecost and the Festival of Booths. Passover and Pentecost are associated with two foundational events in the life of Israel: the crossing of the Red Sea and the giving of the Law on Sinai. The Feast of Booths, originally connected with the march through the desert (since they slept in tents), came to be associated with two other events, the first being the rebuilding of the temple of God after the Babylonian Exile: the high priest Joshua and Zerubabbel (the heir to the throne) offered the first sacrifices in the new temple on this feast. The second historical event was the re-consecration of the temple after its defilement by the Greeks. During the second century before Christ, the Greek king Antiochus Epiphanes set up a statue of Zeus in the temple and defiled it during the Festival of Booths. After a fierce war of two years, the Jews, led by the Maccabee brothers, were able to drive the Greeks out and to offer sacrifice again for the very same festival.
The book of Leviticus instructs those celebrating booths to carry palm branches in honor of God. This is what we see the souls of the just doing in heaven in today’s first reading: carrying palm branches and celebrating the Festival of Booths. The celebration of the march in the desert, the harvest and the renewed temple has been reinterpreted again: now the souls are following the Lamb, whereas before they had followed the pillar of cloud. They are going to their true home, rather than an earthly Holy Land. And they are going to celebrate the consecration of the new temple of God, which is all the saints joined in the Body of Christ, indwelt by the Holy Spirit. God has purified this temple once and for all by the blood of Jesus Christ our Savior, and so the souls are clothed in white to symbolize the final and decisive defeat of Satan and of sin and death. This is the true ‘harvest of souls’. We see in our lives in Christ, we follow the plan of the seasons, as well as the history of Israel. In baptism, our Passover, we are planted: like a seed dying in the earth, we die to sin and rise to Christ. In our confirmation, we receive the Holy Spirit as at Pentecost: we sprout up with the first fruits of new life, beginning to mature into fullness. But while we still are on this earth, we do not yet attain to full maturity. That must wait for our final Passover, our final participation in the Paschal mystery, our own suffering and death in the body.
We often fear death, we fear suffering. Today, we celebrate the triumph of all those who have gone before us marked with the seal of faith. We see that to reach our final happiness, our full joy, we must consent to endure what John calls “the time of great distress.” We have certainly been warned: but today, the celebration of All Saints, we should take heart! We should take heart and rejoice in all those who have made it through this harvesting and now enjoy blessedness, happiness, peace and friendship with all men and with God. The promise of the gospel is not vain: the hope that we feel, the hunger and thirst for justice, fellowship and love is already being satisfied in the lives of the saints. And what a harvest it is: a great multitude which no one can count! Surely among these are persons like ourselves: on earth they struggled with doubt, they struggled with fear and with a variety of sins, both public and hidden. Yet in Christ, they are triumphant in the end. Let us be encouraged by the help given to the saints and by the prayers that they now make on our behalf. Let us today renew our desire for holiness, purity of heart, for meekness and mercy. See what love the Father has bestowed on us! Let us praise Him together in the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ to Whom be glory and honor forever. Amen.
posted by Prior Peter, OSB | 11:35 PM
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