It’s All Saints Day in the Christian calendar. What is a “saint,” anyway? Our English word saint derives from the Latin sanctus, or holy, sanicre, or consecrated. In his letters, Paul used the word for believers, for they were set apart from the rest of the Empire.
There are many ways we can be set apart: by our words, by our works. In Europe during WW2, some were set apart by race, ethnicity, politics, suffering as a result; others were murdered trying to protect them. Here in America people are sometimes set apart by arbitrary categories, such as race, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
What sets us as Christians apart in today’s world? Perhaps by the rejection of such arbitrary categories, the acceptance of everyone as a child of God. But what do we do with hateful people, those who live in the world of arbitrary categories, seeking to destroy what they fear and do not understand? How do we move people from the artificial boundaries they have set for others?
Prayer for the Day
Sanctus, sanctus, we sing, in praise of you, O God,
For you are holy, but not set apart from us;
Sanctus, sanctus, we sing, asking that we be made holy,
As we strive to live your promise of a kingdom of justice and peace.
Sanctus, sanctus, grant, O Holy One, that we reflect you,
And not those who preach hate and fear.
In the name of the One who shows us how to live,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Work as if everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.
Augustine of Hippo, saint, theologian (354-430)
One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. But to sacrifice what you are and to live without belief, that is a fate more terrible than dying.
Joan of Arc, saint, freedom fighter (1412-1431)
To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul, First Letter to the church in Corinth 1: 2-3