Shaping the lives of the Saints
- All Saints’ Reflections
Ephesians
1.11-23; Luke 6.20-31
Guildford Cathedral is flanked
on the north and south by a series of statues. At first glance you might think
they are a collection of saints; but they’re not. There are holy men and women
on the West End, but the statues on the north and south sides are less obvious
than that. In the form of the human body,
they seek to express the virtues, cardinal and theological, down the south side
and down the north the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.
The virtues - Courage,
Justice, Prudence, Temperance, Faith, Hope and Love - may be regarded as a series of
values, ideas to aspire to. Values are very fashionable. Businesses, churches,
schools, hospitals all trumpet their values in prospectuses. Teachers, clergy,
and others, have to do school assemblies based on the school’s values which
often feels like an exercise in promoting the school’s propaganda or performing
contortions to make an abstract value seem applicable in the children’s lives
and connect to the gospel.
The virtues are not highly
fashionable, not least as they seek to form moral character, which is usually
is assumed to mean moralistic, self-righteous, pompous behaviour, which is the
polar opposite of what they are meant to do. That sounds a little like the
perception of saints. They could be seen as being holier-than-thou, unhealthily
unworldly, stained glass wimps.
The purpose of virtues is in
the forming of habits and ways of acting that lead to what we call a virtuous
life. This means that they train us in the making of decisions. From classical
times the virtues shaped moral living. So you could say that saints are those
frail human beings who have responded to the call to be formed in the virtues,
especially those of faith, hope and love. But also the saints, like you and me,
have bestowed upon them the gifts of the Holy Spirit: Wisdom,
Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety and Fear of the Lord.
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| A rather grainy picture of 'Understanding' by Alan Collins Guildford Cathedral |
It’s the Holy Spirit’s gift of understanding that has intrigued me
recently as I have walked past. This depiction connects the gifts of the Spirit
and the virtues with being shaped and formed in the ways of holiness in a
slightly unlikely way. On it, the haloed figure holds an unfurled scroll with
the Biblical reference Ephesians 1.18.
It’s inviting us to read that verse:
“The eyes of your understanding being enlightened;
that ye may know what is the hope of [God’s] calling, and what [is] the riches
of the glory of his inheritance in the saints” (AV)
This are significant words for
what it means to be a saint: eyes seeing the light; knowing the hope of God’s
calling; and knowing the riches of the glory of God’s promise to us in company
with each other and those who go before us.
In this passage, which is a
prayer being offered, an expansive and expanding vision of holiness is being
stretched out before us. After all the prayer goes on to refer to ‘the immeasurable greatness of [God’s] power’
(v19). And let’s be clear: holiness is not pie-in-the-sky, vague or
wishy-washy.
To read this alongside Luke
6.20-31, as the lectionary asks us to, roots the blessedness of that vision of
holiness firmly in lived, embodied, daily realities and offers a deeply
stretching way to approach them. It does so in the language of blessings and
woes. The poor, the hungry, the weeping, the excluded and reviled will all find
blessing. Jesus beholds them and blessing falls upon them.
Those who have life ‘sorted’ -
the rich, the replete, the laughing ones – and who seem comfortable now will
find that they need to rely more on God to know blessing, so that the rich will
recognise their poverty, the replete their hungers, the laughing their pains.
So you’re blessed now: seek further blessing from God.
This is the way to becoming
more human not less, with the most stretching instruction of all, ‘do to others
as you would have them do to you’. Do we even know what we really want others
to do and be for us?
In his Rule St Benedict says, ‘Do not aspire to be called holy before you really are, but first be holy, that you may
truly be called so’ (My italics). In other words don’t ask for the label of
saint without first behaving like one.
Holiness is a life lived in the
intensity of the awareness of God’s presence day by day and a life lived and
shaped by that reality. The ecology of holiness is supported by the intensity
of God-filled moments that we call the sacraments. The Eucharist is the supreme
example of this where in word and sign we are pointed to the divine banquet
gathered with all the saints. Bread and wine, Christ’s body and blood is the
food of the saints.
Holiness is humanness in all
its fullness and potential. Just as the virtues were named so as to shape
habits and actions, so the call to be saints invites a transformed life. The
call to holiness is the call to be a saint; one of the holy ones of God. The
call to holiness is the call to be real, more real than you can possibly
imagine. The call to holiness is the call to be part of a family that extends
beyond biology, kinship and DNA.
So I pray for myself and for
you: May the eyes of our
understanding be enlightened; that we may know what is the hope of [God’s]
calling, and what [is] the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.
Amen.
