There was once a couple, who would have breakfast
every morning in their kitchen nook,
looking out over their own garden and indeed the neighboring gardens.
They noticed there was a new neighbor and
the wife was hanging clothes on the line.
The woman said to her husband,
“Did you notice how she was hanging out clothes on the line?
Isn’t lovely to see somebody hanging clothes out on the line again.”
But then she noticed that all the clothes were dirty.
She said to her husband:
“Strange that the lady next door is hanging dirty clothes out on the line.”
Her husband just nodded and let it be.
This went on for a couple more days and his wife said to him:
“You know somebody should go over and
tell her not to be hanging dirty laundry out on the line each day.
It’s just not right.”
But her husband just nodded and let it be.
This went on for over a month.
Eventually one day she comes down and
she sits at the breakfast table and sees her neighbor hanging laundry;
and all the clothes are clean.
She says to her husband:
“Finally, somebody told her to put out clean laundry.”
Her husband leans over and says:
“Honey, this morning I cleaned our windows.”
The danger is we do not see things as they are but the way we are.
We do not see life the way is as much as we see life as the way we are.
The challenge for us, and it is inherent in us,
that we see life through our own filters
and they can often be the grime-filled filters.
Often we have biases and sometimes prejudices and certain filters
that are a result of our life experiences.
Sometimes they are caused by our woundedness or brokenness,
or just circumstances of our family and being raised the way we were;
what we have experienced over the many years.
The challenge is to move beyond the grime-filled windows.
Today we celebrate All Saints Day and
we celebrate not just all those who are canonized Saints
that do not have a formal feast day
and we also recognize all the many unnamed, uncanonized people
who were Saints in that they lived their lives pure and good.
Not so much that they were perfect,
that there was no grime on their windows ever,
but what they allowed themselves to be washed in the mercy of God
thus keeping the windows of their soul clean.
In doing so, they were able to accept
exactly what St. John in his letter today, the second reading,
which said they recognize that we are God’s children now.
And in recognizing that they were God’s children,
that they were washed in the cleansing mercy of God
that they could see everyone else also as a child of God;
and they were able to bring out the goodness of everyone around them.
Saints have an incredible ability to be able to
not just witness to how God shines through them
but how God can shine through others.
They see the goodness of each and every other person.
St. John of the Cross had a beautiful expression,
somewhat similar to this window story,
“Our souls are like the window of God,
that the light of Christ shines through us like a clear window
and that when we have sins
when we have the grime of life build up on our windows
then the light of Christ cannot shine through us quite as much.”
In a sense then, it becomes blocked.
St. John of the Cross was calling people to contemplation and prayer
and to allow one’s own soul to be washed in the mercy of God
because it is only God’s mercy
that can really cleanse the window of our souls;
that there is nothing that we can do;
all we can do is to allow our souls to be cleared and cleaned.
A lot of us will make a little smudge-hole in the dirty window
and we will just clean little portholes.
We will rub that spot.
There is a part of our life that is clear.
There is another part here.
But the rest of our soul is covered in the ordinary daily grime of life.
There is no one sin so great that it blacks out the whole window
but all the small little unkindness and lack of gentleness,
lack of forgiveness, lack of love,
just all the little stuff slowly builds up the grime
and we tend to just rub away one part of our life;
or another part for this person or that person.
And we look through the porthole cleanliness of our life.
Instead what we are called to do is to see our total life
and to allow God to wash the window completely clean.
When we do that then we let the light of Christ shine
through every little action;
every little word that we say matters greatly.
That kind, gentle word to a friend who needs consolation;
a kind gesture to a person who is wounded and hurt;
a gentle reminder to them that God still loves them
in the midst of their pain of loss.
The Saints most often do not become Saints
because of some major grandiose life.
They become Saints because they have allowed themselves
to be washed clean in God’s mercy and
they do every, little, ordinary thing with extraordinary grace.
The challenge for us of today’s gospel about the Beatitudes
is to understand that we are blessed when we are poor in spirit;
blessed are we who are merciful;
blessed are we who are humble, etc..
These Beatitudes are a way of allowing
the windows of our soul to be washed clean.
And when that happens
the light of Christ shines through our soul
and we become like God.
We become like the Saints.
We let the light of Christ shine through us.
Today, and for this week, whoever we meet
in whatever circumstances we find ourselves
whether it be from old friends or new friends;
whether it be online friends or family or in person,
we commit to allow the light of Christ to shine through us
by first allowing God’s love and mercy to wash us clean;
to bathe in that mercy and love and
to realize that we are all God’s children now;
let the light of Christ shine through the window of our soul.
