To Be Blessed

Today we read the beatitudes from Matthew. We read them because we celebrate those who lived their lives being blessed by God. Although we need to be careful here and need to ask, “What does it mean to be blessed by God?” I have noticed in recent years that many people claim to be blessed because their life is good and things are going well for them. That is not what Jesus meant when he shared his blessings. A quick read of them will show that those Jesus calls blessed are the people whose life involves struggle. Those who struggle in everyday life not knowing if they are doing the correct thing especially those who are persecuted because they are attempting to live the life that God calls them to.

That is not something that you do not already know. Look back at your life. There were many struggles, tribulations, and trials which called you to act in certain ways. Sometimes you made the right decision and sometimes the wrong one. It was in those struggles about family, life, health, and faith where you were blessed by God. Think about it. It was not to the powerful or the rich that Jesus came but to those who society left behind, tax collectors and sinners. 

We hear that message also in the reading from Revelation (which itself may be called a great beatitude). Who are these people? That is the question. They are those who have struggled in their life trying to live out their faith in a world that belittled, persecuted, and killed them. They are the ones whose  robes stained by the world have been washed in the blood of the lamb. Jesus did not bless them because they were wealthy, rich, or happy. Jesus blessed them because they tried to answer his call, to “Pick up their cross and follow.” They did so not knowing where that journey would lead them only that Jesus was leading them.

We see that in the lives of the saints we celebrate today. Those saints we loved and struggled with. Those saints who are now gathered around the throne of God whose lives have been washed by the blood of the lamb. We remember them not because of their place in the kingdom but because they played a part in our own struggles and tribulations helping us to see God’s love and guiding hand in Jesus. We do not celebrate their achievement but what Jesus did for them (and us) upon his own cross. Pick up your cross and follow Jesus knowing that you have been blessed by Jesus’ own precious blood. So Blessed that you can live your life as a beacon of love, faith and hope in the midst of an uncertain and challenging world that disregards God’s gifts and replaces them with hollow desires. That is what we celebrate today. God’s gift to all the saints who have died. A blessing that was their lives and now is ours.