Post haec vidi turbam magnam…After this I saw a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne, and in sight of the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands (Apoc. 7:9).
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
My very dear sons,
“A certain man running up and kneeling before [Jesus], asked him: Good Master, what shall I do that I may receive life everlasting? Why callest thou me good? None is good but one, that is God.” (Mk. 10: 17-18) How is it that, while Our Lord thus affirms that God alone is good, Saint John in the Apocalypse, shows a multitude of human beings, so great that no one could number it, standing like so many holy souls before the throne of God, in sight of the Lamb? Surely these blessed are good. Surely they are Saints. Certainly this day dedicated to all the Saints points, in the end, to the goodness of a very great number of human beings. How can this be if God alone is good?
“I am the Lord,” we read in the prophet Isaiah, “this is my name: I will not give my glory to another…” (Is. 42:8). There can be no doubt about it: God is unique. He is the All-powerful, the All-knowing, the Omnipresent. He alone, unlike any other being, simply is, absolutely, without qualification, without limit. He is transcendent, set apart from all created being. In a certain way, no other can possibly share His nature, His glory, His goodness. And yet, most mysteriously, God is so utterly transcendent, so wise, that He is able, in a way we cannot fathom, to render other beings participants in His own divine life. God alone is good in the highest sense, but He is good to such an extent that He shares His goodness with all creation, doing this especially in favor of creatures endowed with spiritual faculties, that is to say with angels and men.
Some ancient philosophers and certain moderns as well thought that the entire world was divine: this is “pantheism” in its various forms. Other thinkers, especially the Gnostics, held, on the contrary, that God could not come in contact in any way with this lower world, especially with material beings. But, in fact, the one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, worked the ineffable miracle of the Incarnation, thereby spanning the seemingly impossible gap between God and the material world. Without confusion or mixing of the Divine Substance with created being, God, in the Incarnation, truly becomes man, body and soul, assuming an individual human nature. Christ’s human nature is thus the bridge between Heaven and earth. This is how we too can become good, by adhering to this mystery, to the Divine Person with two natures, the one nature being the way to the other. This is how we too can become saints.
On earth men attempt endlessly to create the perfect City-State, a form of government that will allow for the greatest possible happiness of the greatest number or at least of an elite. What comes instead, nearly always, is just another failed Utopia strewn with the human litter of broken promises. The perfection of happiness on earth ever eludes the human race. But God, from the very beginning was building His City of God that is also the Church, a reality that only grows more perfect as the end of the world approaches and the vistas of the Heavenly Jerusalem begin to open up for sinful man, redeemed in the blood of the Lamb. The only reliable model for a government here on earth is to make it as much as possible like the Kingdom of Heaven of which Our Lord so often spoke during the days of His earthly existence. Some societies have drawn closer to this ideal; some have been woefully distant. But only at the end of time will there be this true City of God, full of the knowledge and love of God. “The stream of the river maketh the city of God joyful: the most High hath sanctified his own tabernacle.” (Ps. 45:5, Douay). This is all about the participation of mankind in the life of God, the way we become, as a group, as the Church, good and holy by means of the goodness and holiness of God.
Now, in addition to this social aspect, that of the City of God, there is also the personal aspect: God allows us to participate personally in His own Divine goodness. “Behold,” says the Lord, “I stand at the gate, and knock. If any man shall hear my voice, and open to me the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” (Apoc. 3:20). This intensely spiritual participation in God’s own inner life in the soul is the indwelling of the Most Holy Trinity. Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity, the French Carmelite Nun, lived this indwelling in a very special way.
O my God, Trinity whom I adore, let me entirely forget myself that I may abide in you, still and peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity; let nothing disturb my peace nor separate me from you, O my unchanging God, but that each moment may take me further into the depths of your mystery ! Pacify my soul! Make it your heaven, your beloved home and place of your repose; let me never leave you there alone, but may I be ever attentive, ever alert in my faith, ever adoring and all given up to your creative action.
In the end, the only worthwhile project for human life taken as a whole is tending to be good like God is good, to participate in God’s goodness to the greatest human measure—in a word to be a saint. Leon Bloy wrote, “The only real sadness, the only real failure, the only great tragedy in life, is not to become a saint.” “What is the Church,” wrote a Church Father, “if not the assembly of all the saints?” (Nicetas, Expl. Symb. 10: PL52:871B). To become a saint does not depend entirely or even principally on what we do: it is first and foremost the work of God’s grace. But we can and must collaborate in this great undertaking. Whether in regard to the Church as a whole or with respect to our personal sanctification, we must strive every day to achieve this seemingly impossible task: becoming the saints of today, tomorrow, and forever. Amen. Alleluia.
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Post haec vidi turbam magnam…After this I saw a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne, and in sight of the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands (Apoc. 7:9).
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
My very dear sons,
“A certain man running up and kneeling before [Jesus], asked him: Good Master, what shall I do that I may receive life everlasting? Why callest thou me good? None is good but one, that is God.” (Mk. 10: 17-18) How is it that, while Our Lord thus affirms that God alone is good, Saint John in the Apocalypse, shows a multitude of human beings, so great that no one could number it, standing like so many holy souls before the throne of God, in sight of the Lamb? Surely these blessed are good. Surely they are Saints. Certainly this day dedicated to all the Saints points, in the end, to the goodness of a very great number of human beings. How can this be if God alone is good?
“I am the Lord,” we read in the prophet Isaiah, “this is my name: I will not give my glory to another…” (Is. 42:8). There can be no doubt about it: God is unique. He is the All-powerful, the All-knowing, the Omnipresent. He alone, unlike any other being, simply is, absolutely, without qualification, without limit. He is transcendent, set apart from all created being. In a certain way, no other can possibly share His nature, His glory, His goodness. And yet, most mysteriously, God is so utterly transcendent, so wise, that He is able, in a way we cannot fathom, to render other beings participants in His own divine life. God alone is good in the highest sense, but He is good to such an extent that He shares His goodness with all creation, doing this especially in favor of creatures endowed with spiritual faculties, that is to say with angels and men.
Some ancient philosophers and certain moderns as well thought that the entire world was divine: this is “pantheism” in its various forms. Other thinkers, especially the Gnostics, held, on the contrary, that God could not come in contact in any way with this lower world, especially with material beings. But, in fact, the one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, worked the ineffable miracle of the Incarnation, thereby spanning the seemingly impossible gap between God and the material world. Without confusion or mixing of the Divine Substance with created being, God, in the Incarnation, truly becomes man, body and soul, assuming an individual human nature. Christ’s human nature is thus the bridge between Heaven and earth. This is how we too can become good, by adhering to this mystery, to the Divine Person with two natures, the one nature being the way to the other. This is how we too can become saints.
On earth men attempt endlessly to create the perfect City-State, a form of government that will allow for the greatest possible happiness of the greatest number or at least of an elite. What comes instead, nearly always, is just another failed Utopia strewn with the human litter of broken promises. The perfection of happiness on earth ever eludes the human race. But God, from the very beginning was building His City of God that is also the Church, a reality that only grows more perfect as the end of the world approaches and the vistas of the Heavenly Jerusalem begin to open up for sinful man, redeemed in the blood of the Lamb. The only reliable model for a government here on earth is to make it as much as possible like the Kingdom of Heaven of which Our Lord so often spoke during the days of His earthly existence. Some societies have drawn closer to this ideal; some have been woefully distant. But only at the end of time will there be this true City of God, full of the knowledge and love of God. “The stream of the river maketh the city of God joyful: the most High hath sanctified his own tabernacle.” (Ps. 45:5, Douay). This is all about the participation of mankind in the life of God, the way we become, as a group, as the Church, good and holy by means of the goodness and holiness of God.
Now, in addition to this social aspect, that of the City of God, there is also the personal aspect: God allows us to participate personally in His own Divine goodness. “Behold,” says the Lord, “I stand at the gate, and knock. If any man shall hear my voice, and open to me the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” (Apoc. 3:20). This intensely spiritual participation in God’s own inner life in the soul is the indwelling of the Most Holy Trinity. Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity, the French Carmelite Nun, lived this indwelling in a very special way.
O my God, Trinity whom I adore, let me entirely forget myself that I may abide in you, still and peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity; let nothing disturb my peace nor separate me from you, O my unchanging God, but that each moment may take me further into the depths of your mystery ! Pacify my soul! Make it your heaven, your beloved home and place of your repose; let me never leave you there alone, but may I be ever attentive, ever alert in my faith, ever adoring and all given up to your creative action.
In the end, the only worthwhile project for human life taken as a whole is tending to be good like God is good, to participate in God’s goodness to the greatest human measure—in a word to be a saint. Leon Bloy wrote, “The only real sadness, the only real failure, the only great tragedy in life, is not to become a saint.” “What is the Church,” wrote a Church Father, “if not the assembly of all the saints?” (Nicetas, Expl. Symb. 10: PL52:871B). To become a saint does not depend entirely or even principally on what we do: it is first and foremost the work of God’s grace. But we can and must collaborate in this great undertaking. Whether in regard to the Church as a whole or with respect to our personal sanctification, we must strive every day to achieve this seemingly impossible task: becoming the saints of today, tomorrow, and forever. Amen. Alleluia.
