For Sunday
All Saints’ Day
Collect
Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord: Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting.
Amen.
Reading
Reflection
Jesus likes to flip expectations and turn over our assumptions. Something we might consider doing for him, as well. So when we hear the idea of turning the other cheek, we shouldn’t assume the common understanding is what Jesus meant, let alone even coherent.
Jesus’s Way of Love is compassionate and responsive to people’s actual needs. It is full of hope for what can be and a commitment to engaging generously (rather than restricted, closed, entrenched) with strangers, friends, enemies, family: all of us. Which is why skepticism and confusion about how to do this ourselves can be a constant question for people of faith.
We’re invited to embody these values. In that way, the question of how is far less important. Because these values are to permeate everything we do. Everything we are. Our work is to breathe love, even as we weep. To sweat love, even as we hunger. To be loving, always. It is the fuel that makes the vehicle go, not its destination.