On All Saints Day, we honor and remember the many saints of our Catholic tradition, both known and unknown. We celebrate those who have demonstrated a commitment to God, and honor those who have given their lives to carry out the mission of the church and Jesus Christ. For us, saints are examples of leadership that we strive to follow in our own lives. We pray to them, asking for guidance or comfort, and if you’re like me, you also pray to them a fair amount of times to find your keys (gratitude to St. Anthony for always coming through). But as we prepare to celebrate, name, and uplift the many saints in our tradition, All Saints Day is also a critical time that we ask ourselves who the saints and leaders in our own communities are, and ask ourselves what defines “leadership.” In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives us examples of qualities of saints and leaders in our community through the Beatitudes. 

I will admit that I have struggled with the Beatitudes in the Gospel of Matthew in the past. As an organizer in the movement to end poverty, I have often preferred Luke’s version that more clearly states the blessing of the poor (not the poor in spirit), as well as an indictment of those who hoard wealth at the expense of others (Luke 6:20-26). But in Matthew’s version, we do not have the indictment of the rich, and the first line about poverty reads, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” It’s the “in spirit” that has always troubled me, and for good reason. This idea of the poor “in spirit” has been used to perpetuate the idea that Jesus is not concerned with the material concerns of people, but only the “spiritual poverty” that one may face. But if we look at the Beatitudes within the context of the entire Sermon of the Mount, it is clear that Jesus is calling on us to be very concerned with both the spiritual and material poverty and strife that people face. Later in his sermon, Jesus calls for various forms of economic and material justice, including debt forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer (Matt. 6:9-15), the commandment that we cannot serve both God and money (Matt. 6:24), and God’s vision for all people’s material needs to be met (Matt. 6:25-34).  In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus demonstrates his clarity of the problems that people are facing at hand – not just the spiritual pain – but the real material needs of citizens in the Roman Empire.

It’s not enough that Jesus just knows what the issues at hand are, such as war, hunger, poverty, but Jesus also offers his followers a solution: Join a movement to go against the Empire. Throughout the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus continually teaches and develops those around him to be leaders in a movement. Right before the Beatitudes, Jesus calls Simon and Andrew to be his disciples, telling them that he can teach them how to “fish for people” to join a movement (Matt. 4:18-22). After the Beatitudes, we see the calling of the tax collector, Matthew (Matt. 9:9-13), and the eventual commissioning and sending forth of his disciples to be leaders in the movement (Matt. 10). Through Jesus’s organization and ministry, we see what it means to truly be a leader. Jesus is not just a leader because he preaches a powerful sermon or because he is the most studied or the most popular person in Galilee. He is a leader because he is both teaching and preparing those around him to take up his ministry in the struggle towards justice.

In a world where leadership is often defined by popularity, charisma, money, or power, we learn from the Beatitudes and our deep spiritual traditions that leadership is something entirely different. Leadership is committing ourselves to caring for those around us and their spiritual and material well being. It is also understanding what issues our communities are facing and developing ourselves and those around us to solve these problems together. In our tradition, our saints are not just saints because of their individual characteristics or holiness. They are saints because they help us continue to commit to our tradition of peace, love, community, and justice.

Who are saints in the Catholic tradition that you look up to, and why? Who are saints in your own community who you look up to, and why?

What are traditional ideas of leadership, and how did today’s reflection help you think of that differently?

The Church of the Common Ground is an Episcopal street ministry in Atlanta, GA that offers programming throughout downtown Atlanta such as Bible Study, Morning Prayer, Common Soles Foot Clinic, and a weekly Sunday Service. Many of our parishioners at Common Ground are experiencing or have in some way been touched by homelessness. Community members and parishioners are encouraged to make up and be a part of all of our programming, helping us to lead our various services, as well as serving critical volunteer roles. Many of our core members have been housed in the past year-and-a-half (largely due to our partnership with a local outreach organization), but they still return every single week to help sustain our programming. From serving hot chocolate to being lead support on our foot clinic, our community saints have committed to our mission and vision with grace, humor, love, and joy. Our church would not be what it is without their leadership, and their leadership exemplifies the truth that the strongest and most committed faith leaders can be anyone and come from anywhere – including on the streets.

The many saints of Church of the Common Ground huddled to avoid the rain during our weekly Wednesday afternoon Bible Study. Community members discuss the Bible passages in preparation for the upcoming Sunday Service. https://shereethaj.com/