Dear Friends in Christ,
In the few months that I still have to be with you, I will a number of times do something that has just never been able to generate much support in this or in any of my other parishes–and that is to have celebrations on weekday evenings of the saints of the church. This autumn we will gather on weekday evenings to honor St. Matthew, St. Luke, St. Michael, St. Simon and St. Jude. Some people wonder why I tilt at this particular windmill, especially given the large number of “really important” issues to address.
The saints have pretty much fallen, not so much out of favor, as just out of consciousness. Lutheran churches used to be named after saints fairly routinely, but nowadays we prefer cutesy names like “New Life” or “Harvest Wind” over St. Paul’s or St. Matthew’s. Even among Roman Catholics, the saints seem endangered, like the passenger pigeon or the Dodo bird. Years ago, Roman Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar lamented the sorry fate of the saints in his church:
Nowadays the saints may possibly have a more hidden existence than heretofore. Contemporary church architecture wants to do away with the pictorial; the saints are forgotten; their feast days are confusingly moved about; their communion and mediation remain unused. There are still canonizations, but they hardly evoke any wide resonance. Thus the saints go underground, at least for a time. They are not interested in being venerated anyway. If their disappearance meant that God would be loved better and more deeply, they would be the first to approve. It remains doubtful, however, whether we see God any more brightly in the absence of their light; I think we do not. We shall have to set the light of the saints on the lamp stand once again if we are not to stumble around in a night of our own making. For it is by the light of the saints, which is nothing other than God’s light in the world, that we see the light.
I agree with von Balthasar that saints are important for a theological, or incarnational, reason. They refract the Light of Christ to us. God always comes to us in earthen vessels. We Lutherans teach that the canonized saints are no more saints than any other baptized Christian. The purpose of canonization is not to set these folks above us, on a pedestal. The purpose is to set them amongst us, as models. They call us to our own saintliness.
I celebrate them with a Eucharist on a weekday, however, not just to honor them, but also to drag the Eucharist off of Sunday. And the intense secularity of our world makes this effort even more important to me. It hallows our weekdays. It reminds us to be Christians every day. I understand that given our insanely busy lives in the D.C. area it may not be feasible to get to all these services, but I think it is important that they happen. It has been said that even in the 17th century when George Herbert would pray Matins each morning in his rural parish few if any members gathered with him, but they heard the church bell ring, took off their hats, and remembered God. Modern secular society now frowns on church bells as noise pollution, but I hope you remember that each night at CTS Vespers is prayed, and sometimes Mass is said in honor of the saints on their given days. When you can be with us, that will be a great joy, but when you can’t, I hope you will find a way to doff your cap and remember God.
Yours in Christ,
–Pastor Bastien
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