Christ Lutheran Church
Cleveland, Ohio
November 2, 2025
by: Rev. Dean Kavouras

All Saints
Supremely Happy

As we hear the Lord’s words today let us keep in mind that the word “blessed” used in the beatitudes means to be supremely happy. And so Jesus says:

3 Supremely happy are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
4 Supremely happy are those who mourn,
for they shall be comforted.
5 Supremely happy are the meek,
For they shall inherit the land.
6 Supremely happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be filled to the full.
7 Supremely happy are the merciful,
for they shall obtain mercy.
8 Supremely happy are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God.
9 Supremely happy are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called sons of God.
10 Supremely happy are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
For theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
11 Supremely happy are you whenever men revile you, and persecute you and falsely speak every kind of calumny against you on MY account,
12 Rejoice and be filled with gladness for great is your reward in heaven. For so persecuted they the prophets before you.

—
Today the church celebrates the feast of All Saints. It was, and still is, a RC Holy Day. But it is a Lutheran Catholic Holy Day as well. We celebrate it in much the same way, but with one notable exception.

Like Rome sing out the “high praises” of our Great God and Savior Jesus Christ who redeemed us from devil, death and sin, and rendered us Saints by his cross.

But What Lutherans do not do is pray to the saints or ask them to pray for us because our Lord Jesus Christ is the “one mediator between God and man.” And because Jesus teaches us in John 16:27 that: the Father himself loves us and will attend to our prayers because, we love Jesus and believe that he came from the Father.

But that is not the whole story because the church of heaven known as “The Church Triumphant,” does in fact pray for the church on earth, known as the “Church Militant” as she liturgizes our Great God and Savior Jesus Christ. They do so pray, and will continue to do, because of the mutual love we share with them as we live through the Great Tribulation.

What are we saying? Just this. That the church triumphant – which consists of the saints who have gone before us, the holy angels, the blessed martyrs, the patriarchs, prophets, apostles and, yes, the Blessed Virgin Mary as well – all uphold us by their prayers to our God and Father.

Further, whenever “The Church Militant” prays as she does in this very divine liturgy; or when any individual prays for another, those prayers are perfected by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:26), joined to the intercessions of The Church Triumphant, and placed on the heavenly altar. We get a glimpse of this in today’s first reading from Revelation chapter seven, and behold! the sight is glorious!

Due to their prayers offered to “the Father of all mercies,” we are beyond the reach of all our enemies, and our future is both glorious and certain. Which in turn gives us great confidence to live our daily lives because as Saint Paul says in Romans 8:18, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” And again in 2 Corinthians 4:17, “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.”

Now in light of all this our Lord teaches us the Beatitudes in today’s gospel. At first glance the Beatitudes may seem like a “quid pro quo.” Something gotten for something given. But that it not the case. To teach that is to turn the Gospel into the Law and salvation into condemnation.

Keep back 500 feet!

But to hear the Beatitudes properly we should think of St. Matthew’s gospel as the earliest Christian liturgy. And thus all that is written therein must be understood Eucharistically. Understood in the light of the Holy Supper which IS Holy Christian Worship; and to try to understand the Beatitudes outside that context will only lead to confusion.

Now as Christians we live with a paradox. That is to say with two opposite factors in play at the same time. Due to the Old Adam within us the Beatitudes do not interest us in the least, but their polar opposite on the other hand tantalizes and fascinates us! We do not want to be poor in spirit or in anything else. We never want to mourn, or be meek, or merciful or pure in heart. And we definitely prefer to be superlatively adored by the world, rather than persecuted for the name of Jesus.

But we also know that due to our redemption by the Great Peacemaker, we are now “sons of God,” and there is nothing more wonderful to us than these Beatitudes.

However if anyone were to note of our daily lives they would rarely see the Beatitudes at work within us. So how do we reconcile this paradox. These two opposites?

The answer takes us back to our original statement: that the Beatitudes cannot be comprehended apart from Divine Liturgy which is Holy Communion. That event wherein the Church Militant united on the Lord’s Day with the Church Triumphant, falls down on its face before the altar of God in worship and cries out: “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

In this supreme moment of Christ-given holiness we embody all the beatitudes. We come to the altar poor in spirit. Or in the words of the hymn:

“Nothing in my hands I bring,
simply to Thy cross I cling.”

and are made rich in spirit by our Lord’s own poverty. (2 Cor. 8:9) We come mourning for our sins, and walk away filled with gladness. We come seeking God’s righteousness in Christ, and our cup overflows. Here and now we are like the Lord whose Body and Blood we eat and drink. Meek, merciful, sons of God and are pure in heart. Now we are supremely happy! As we look forward to an eternity of the same.

And so the church continues to celebrate this ancient feast of great hope which has been part of the church year since the year 610; more than 14 centuries. This is the feast of victory for our God.