THE CHURCH:  MILITANT, EXPECTANT, AND TRIUMPHANT

The Feast of ALL SAINTS

1 November, AD 2009

TEXT:  Revelation vii. 2.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen.

“And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes and whence came they?  And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest.  And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. . . And the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters:  and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”  (Rev. 7, selected verses).

The Feast of All Saints celebrates and emphasizes an important reality of which all faithful people should be reminded; that the Church, that mystical Body of Christ, extends far beyond that which we can see, feel, touch, taste, or hear with our physical senses, alone.  For all people; young and old, rich or poor, Jew or Greek, firm or infirm, male or female, living or dead, ALL PEOPLE who believe in Jesus Christ and Him Crucified and Risen, share in that fellowship of believers which we know as the Church of God.  It is this total company, this vast assembly, which, as St. John says, no man can number, that comprises, in its totality, the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church.  More particularly, it is on the Feast of All Saints that we remember those who lived exemplary and notable lives on earth and have been declared by Mother Church to be Saints, with a capital “S” ; those named and even unnamed men and women whom we remember in the course of our yearly Liturgical Kalendar, who evangelized heathen nations, who stood in the name of Justice and Peace before corruption and evil, who did not superhero deeds, but led faithful lives, and gave those lives, when necessary, out of the love of the Saviour of their souls, Jesus Christ.  Likewise, there are those faithful Christians who have gone on before us, who, as St. Paul says, have finished their earthly race and gone to sleep in the peace of Christ.  It is on All Souls’ Day, tomorrow, November 2nd, that they are remembered – all the faithfully departed in Christ.  All of these persons, including we who remain on this terrestrial ball make up the Church, and in a mystical way, because we, as Christians, are set apart to honor and praise God Almighty, we share in the name of “saint” but with a little “s”; for that word means, simply, to be set apart, to be made holy for a particular task; in our case, like theirs, the worship and praise of God, who created us.  From this we find that we are interconnected with all Christians, those who continue their earthly work and those who have gone on to be with God in Paradise – and we come together each week at Church so that the eternal worship of God will continue both on Earth as it does in Heaven, until Jesus comes again to bring the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God to this world.  

We affirm this reality each time we say the Apostles’ or Nicene Creed, whether at Morning or Evening Prayer or at the Mass.  It is where we proclaim a belief in the Communion of Saints.  For it is in the Communion of Saints that we mean that spiritual union of all Christians living and dead who share in the mystical Body of Christ with Christ as our Head, in which each member contributes to the good of all and shares in the welfare of each other.

This communion is a sharing in love and prayer; a manifestation of the spiritual unity of the Church of God.  It is Christ, the Head of our Family, who binds all of us together and the point at which we meet is that Altar where we join “with Angels and Archangels and with all the company of Heaven” as we worship God in the Sacrifice of the Mass.  And if we believe what Jesus said in St. Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 22, verses 31 – 32, which reads, “And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God:  “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?  He is not God of the dead, but of the living!”, we believe that the bodily dead are conscious and from Revelation 6:9-11 that they have concern for us and pray for us as well.  This is why we remember them each Sunday during the Prayer for the Whole State of Christ’s Church, that God would grant them continual growth in His love and service and give us the Grace necessary to follow their good examples.  It is these who compose so great a cloud of witnesses, who have borne witness to the faith of Jesus Christ, and who continue to surround us with their prayers and ours with them.  This is the great Communion of Saints of which the earthly Church is but a part.  So we need to delve deeper into this reality in order to understand it more comprehensively.

Just like the English language has three tenses; past, present, and future, the Church, herself, can be thought of as existing in three tenses or states of being as well, corresponding to past, present, and future.  But just as God is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; one God; there are not three separate Churches but one Church which exists in those three different states of being.  The first state is one with which we are all familiar, the Church of the Present.  

The Church of the Present is called the Church Militant, not because we carry weapons or like to watch military movies, but that our work, as Christians on this earth is not done or completed.  We are militant in the sense that we still strive or struggle against the powers of darkness and evil and still have a witness to Christ and His Love to proclaim to others by the way in which we live our lives and the way in which we worship God in this branch of His Holy Church.  The Church Militant is sometimes also called the Pilgrim Church in which we continuously strive in our pilgrimage on Earth to bring the Church to the world, to witness to Christ, and to herald His Kingdom to His Creation.

Next, there is the Church of the Past, sometimes known as the Church Suffering, or, better, the Church Expectant in which those who have died, and are in Paradise with God in His nearer presence, await the final Consummation in Glory of God’s Kingdom on Earth.  At this point the lines of deliniation can sometimes get hazy, due to our Roman brethrens’ Doctrine of Purgatory.  As Anglo-Catholic Christians, we reject the Romish Doctrine of Purgatory as a place of torment and purgation and rely on the words of our Lord to the penitent thief as He hung on the Cross when He said to him, “Today thou shalt be with me in Paradise.”  The Church Expectant exists in that state of Paradise where those who have finished their course on Earth reside.  They are our brothers and sisters in Christ who have gone to their rest, who, as Revelation tells us are under the Altar of God, but still in His presence, who have the hope of rising again at the Great and Final Judgment and of entering into God’s Eternal Kingdom as the Sons and Daughters of Christ the King.  Paradise is from the word “garden” and, in some sense, those faithful who have died in Christ have entered again into that state of relationship with God which existed in the Garden of Eden.

Finally, there is the Church of the Future or the Church Triumphant – those who exist in perfect union with God now.  These are the Saints who have attained the Beatific Vision of God and dwell with Him in Heaven.  They, too, are a part of the Communion of Saints and their intercession for us is extremely powerful.  They pray for us here on earth that we might be faithful witnesses to Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and attain with them and the Church Expectant, eternity in the Kingdom of God.  

So all who are a part of the Church; past, present and future, share in the one Communion of Saints.  We share one with the other in the same unity in Christ Jesus our Lord.  All of us in varying degrees and states of existence share in the same love of God and neighbor and sing the one hymn of Glory to our Heavenly Father.  The lesson that All Saints and All Souls teaches us is that we are holy people sharing holy things forever in Christ Jesus.  All of us in the Church; Militant, Expectant, and Triumphant, in these three states of Being, if you will, share in the one Hope and reality that we will never be separated from Christ or in Christ.  More than anything else, we have that sure and certain hope that we are surrounded by and are a part of that great cloud of witnesses, those whose robes have been made white in the Blood of the Lamb and that not only does Christ dwell in our heart, but we are Christ’s and He is ours forever.  Absolutely nothing on earth or anywhere else, even Death, itself, will ever be able to separate us from the Communion of Saints and the Love of God, both here on Earth and in Heaven!     HHisHis      

And now, unto God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost be ascribed all might, majesty, power, and dominion as is most justly due this day both now and forever; world without end.  Amen.

SOLI DEO GLORIA – JEU+