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11/1/26 The Blessedness Exam · Omnia Christus

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  SPEAKER_00: Today is a beautiful day celebrating all the saints,
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  SPEAKER_00: all of our spiritual family, those who have gone on before us.
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  SPEAKER_00: Saint just means holy one.
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  SPEAKER_00: As you know, near the church, the Christians called one another saints.
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  SPEAKER_00: They called one another the holy ones of God.
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  SPEAKER_00: And we ourselves,
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  SPEAKER_00: in this celebration, we remember all those who are holy, all those who are holy.
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  SPEAKER_00: United to God,
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  SPEAKER_00: all those who have lived lives that are worthy of our imitation,
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  SPEAKER_00: those who remind us of what it looks like to follow Christ.
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  SPEAKER_00: And the temptation on a day like today might be to feel a little bit overwhelmed and
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  SPEAKER_00: to think, well, you know, look at them up there, you know, don't they look nice?
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  SPEAKER_00: And here we are down here with our difficult,
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  SPEAKER_00: mundane,
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  SPEAKER_00: humdrum,
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  SPEAKER_00: A lot of times boring,
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  SPEAKER_00: lots of times uninteresting, many times unimpressive daily lives.
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  SPEAKER_00: And we might feel there's a great divide between us and between them.
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  SPEAKER_00: And of course, if you've studied the lives of the saints, you know that that's not true.
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  SPEAKER_00: The reason why we have these people is not to put them up there to venerate them
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  SPEAKER_00: as some sort of gods or a replacement for pagan deities.
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  SPEAKER_00: But rather because we believe that we are all united in community, right?
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  SPEAKER_00: Every one of us is united with everyone else.
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  SPEAKER_00: All Christians ask one another to pray for them.
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  SPEAKER_00: And we believe that that union continues even after someone is dead.
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  SPEAKER_00: And in fact,
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  SPEAKER_00: continues much more so because to die in Christ,
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  SPEAKER_00: to die in a state of grace,
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  SPEAKER_00: even if imperfectly united to God,
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  SPEAKER_00: is to be more perfectly united to God than we are on this earth.
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  SPEAKER_00: The passing from this life is not a loss for the Christian,
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  SPEAKER_00: rather is a gain, is a being part of Christ's kingdom and his loving plan.
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  SPEAKER_00: So all these people around us here,
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  SPEAKER_00: the people who've gone on ahead of us,
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  SPEAKER_00: who are our brothers and sisters,
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  SPEAKER_00: who are united to us and who wish to help us and to participate in our journeys,
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  SPEAKER_00: to be channels of grace and strength for us,
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  SPEAKER_00: to pray for us, as the book of Revelation talks about.
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  SPEAKER_00: In the book of Revelation,
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  SPEAKER_00: John sees all of these People gathered around the altar says, who are these?
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  SPEAKER_00: These are the saints offering a bowls of incense, the prayers of the faithful.
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  SPEAKER_00: They gather together the prayers of their family here on earth and they bring them
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  SPEAKER_00: to God on our behalf,
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  SPEAKER_00: just as we pray on behalf of others,
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  SPEAKER_00: that all of us are united together, that we can all do this work.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's why we have this celebration.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's why we have these images.
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  SPEAKER_00: And we shouldn't feel separated from or judged by them,
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  SPEAKER_00: but rather we should feel inspired by them.
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  SPEAKER_00: I encourage all of you to enter deeply into the lives of the saints,
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  SPEAKER_00: to find who your favorite people are,
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  SPEAKER_00: to find who the people are who have a similar experience to yours because there is
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  SPEAKER_00: an experience Just like yours among the saints,
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  SPEAKER_00: I guarantee you, because there is everything.
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  SPEAKER_00: In the saints, we have every sort of person from every walk of life.
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  SPEAKER_00: People who lived ordinary humdrum simple lives and yet live them
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  SPEAKER_00: with extraordinary
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  SPEAKER_00: grace, with unique awareness, with total presence.
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  SPEAKER_00: Lived the ordinary so fully that they made it extraordinary.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's who the saints are.
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  SPEAKER_00: The saints were all sitting where we are at one point,
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  SPEAKER_00: you know,
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  SPEAKER_00: in perhaps beautiful celebrations like this one and perhaps humdrum offices.
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  SPEAKER_00: All the situations in life that we experience, the saints likewise experienced.
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  SPEAKER_00: And they had their own problems and faults and failings, but they persevered.
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  SPEAKER_00: They made something of their lives and that's why they give us an example to follow,
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  SPEAKER_00: not because they were these perfect people floating around on clouds up there,
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  SPEAKER_00: but because they were like us.
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  SPEAKER_00: They were close to us.
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  SPEAKER_00: They understand our situation and we can read about,
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  SPEAKER_00: understand their situation, be inspired by their lives to be closer to God.
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  SPEAKER_00: How are we going to do this?
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  SPEAKER_00: How do we draw close to God?
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  SPEAKER_00: As we look at these saints and we feel the difference between them and us,
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  SPEAKER_00: How do we overcome that?
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  SPEAKER_00: I think we all know that there's something in our lives that's missing.
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  SPEAKER_00: We all know there's something in our lives that needs to be fixed.
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  SPEAKER_00: We have flaws, we have problems.
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  SPEAKER_00: And if we don't think we have any flaws or problems,
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  SPEAKER_00: all we need to do is ask those who we're close to.
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  SPEAKER_00: And most of the time,
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  SPEAKER_00: they'll be very happy to tell us about our flaws and problems
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  SPEAKER_00: because we all have them and they stare us in the face.
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  SPEAKER_00: And so we are aware of that or we could be aware of that and we want to change and be different.
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  SPEAKER_00: And be renewed.
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  SPEAKER_00: What are we going to do?
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  SPEAKER_00: How am I going to do that?
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  SPEAKER_00: How am I going to imitate these big brothers and sisters that I have represented here?
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  SPEAKER_00: What am I going to do to walk that path of sanctity,
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  SPEAKER_00: of holiness, of union with God, of wholeness of life, of being present?
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  SPEAKER_00: Well, in the church, we have this thing called examination of conscience.
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  SPEAKER_00: The examination of conscience is where you kind of analyze your life,
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  SPEAKER_00: think about the ways that you've might've fallen down and think
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  SPEAKER_00: about what you can do going forward.
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  SPEAKER_00: And actually a psychologist that I know actually has a program for this
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  SPEAKER_00: where he has people imagine their lives in five years.
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  SPEAKER_00: What would be your best life in five years?
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  SPEAKER_00: Write about it, write that out, flesh it out, describe it to yourself.
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  SPEAKER_00: And what would be complete disaster in five years?
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  SPEAKER_00: What would failure look like?
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  SPEAKER_00: What would it look like if you continued on the trajectory or now or worse?
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  SPEAKER_00: What would that look like?
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  SPEAKER_00: And just doing this simple exercise helps his clients to transform their lives.
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  SPEAKER_00: They have measurable difference in their life outcomes after doing that exercise
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  SPEAKER_00: because they just present clearly to themselves what the situation of their life is
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  SPEAKER_00: and what it could be.
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  SPEAKER_00: And doing that draws out from them the things they need to do.
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  SPEAKER_00: I need to change things in my life.
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  SPEAKER_00: I need to turn things around.
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  SPEAKER_00: If I don't, I'm going to end up like this.
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  SPEAKER_00: But if I do, I could end up like that.
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  SPEAKER_00: And so that's why we have these traditions in the church,
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  SPEAKER_00: like the examination of conscience, like the sacrament of confession.
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  SPEAKER_00: Usually the examination of conscience is united to that sacrament of confession,
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  SPEAKER_00: a place where we can go and lay everything bare.
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  SPEAKER_00: Put everything that we have at the feet of Christ.
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  SPEAKER_00: The priest stands in the presence of Christ,
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  SPEAKER_00: is sworn never to say anything that he hears there,
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  SPEAKER_00: and he's able to offer that psychological surety of saying something
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  SPEAKER_00: before someone else,
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  SPEAKER_00: not just in your own head,
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  SPEAKER_00: and hearing someone else speak those words that we know Christ speaks to us,
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  SPEAKER_00: which are, I forgive you, I pardon you, I release you from that burden.
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  SPEAKER_00: That is an incredibly beautiful and powerful grace.
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  SPEAKER_00: But this examination of conscience that we do is so often based on
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  SPEAKER_00: the Ten Commandments, those classic rules from the Old Testament.
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  SPEAKER_00: Thou shalt not do this and thou shalt not do that.
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  SPEAKER_00: And there's a few thou shalt.
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  SPEAKER_00: Thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother.
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  SPEAKER_00: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.
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  SPEAKER_00: But most of them are more negatives than positives.
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  SPEAKER_00: And we can take those to our examination of conscience.
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  SPEAKER_00: We say, well, I failed in this.
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  SPEAKER_00: I failed in that.
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  SPEAKER_00: And shoot, I did that again.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I suggest...
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  SPEAKER_00: A better possibility,
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  SPEAKER_00: which would be to take the gospel that we have today,
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  SPEAKER_00: the Beatitudes of Christ, and use those for our examination of conscience.
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  SPEAKER_00: I think that's an incredibly beautiful and rich way to think about it.
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  SPEAKER_00: Rather than thinking about our life as in what I didn't do,
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  SPEAKER_00: what I didn't do, what I didn't do, but what could I do more?
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  SPEAKER_00: What does the blessed life look like that Christ presents to me in the gospel?
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  SPEAKER_00: What is his example?
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  SPEAKER_00: And what can I do to approximate that?
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  SPEAKER_00: How can I grow more?
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  SPEAKER_00: Am I living of the kingdom in my life?
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  SPEAKER_00: Am I poor in spirit?
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  SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
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  SPEAKER_00: How can I become more detached from those things which are holding me back?
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  SPEAKER_00: My mourning, am I putting that into Christ's hands?
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  SPEAKER_00: Meekness, could I be more meek?
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  SPEAKER_00: Could I imitate Christ in that?
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  SPEAKER_00: Each one of these beautiful lines from the Beatitudes need to be sort of hallmarks of our lives.
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  SPEAKER_00: And of course, we're not going to live them out perfectly.
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  SPEAKER_00: And there's no reason for despair or distress in that.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's just the way we are.
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  SPEAKER_00: But it's a positive roadmap.
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  SPEAKER_00: I can do things,
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  SPEAKER_00: even small things in my life to be better,
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  SPEAKER_00: to be more whole,
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  SPEAKER_00: to live a life that's more consistent,
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  SPEAKER_00: that's more grounded,
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  SPEAKER_00: that's more unified, that's more beautiful, that's more blessed.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's what Christ means by blessed.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's the blessedness that he offers us.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's the blessedness that the saints model for us.
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  SPEAKER_00: And that's why we're gathered here today.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not just to have a beautiful celebration,
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  SPEAKER_00: to enjoy our wonderful choir,
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  SPEAKER_00: our beautiful liturgy, but to receive Christ's presence in our lives.
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  SPEAKER_00: He wants to come into our lives and transform us.
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  SPEAKER_00: He wants to give us that which we cannot give ourselves, which is the love of God.
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  SPEAKER_00: Love is something that has to be received.
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  SPEAKER_00: And receiving that love, we can pour it forth.
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  SPEAKER_00: Our lives can start to become blessed through His blessedness, through His love.
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  SPEAKER_00: They can start to be unified, centered.
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  SPEAKER_00: And from that, they can pour out into the lives of others.
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  SPEAKER_00: Rather than setting out to change the lives of all those around me,
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  SPEAKER_00: they just set out to change my own life,
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  SPEAKER_00: to become my own version of what the saints were, my own best self.
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  SPEAKER_00: And if I do that,
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  SPEAKER_00: If I let Christ do that work in me,
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  SPEAKER_00: then I will be walking that path that the saints walked before me and making my life
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  SPEAKER_00: and the lives of those around me much more filled with the presence and love
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  SPEAKER_00: of Christ.