“So, who are you?” asked a faculty member I’d just met. We were both working with Notre Dame Vision, a summer conference (some would say retreat) for high school students. So I introduced myself: name, what I was studying, my roles on campus and with the summer program. “No,” he said, “that’s what you do. Who ARE you?” I wasn’t sure how else to identify myself on the spot!
The readings for the Solemnity of All Saints reminded me of that interaction, particularly the first reading and the psalm. “Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?” “Who can ascend the mountain of the Lord? Or who may stand in his holy place?” In both readings, there is an answer. They are the ones who have survived the time of great distress, and believed in the Lamb. They are the people who long to see God’s face. In the Gospel, Jesus goes on to describe the attributes of those who are close to him: humble, grieving, gentle, purehearted, merciful, striving for justice, making peace, suffering for doing what is right in the name of Christ. I aspire to this kind of blessedness as a “saint in training.” (I bought my godson a onesie with that phrase on it when he was baptized; I think perhaps all the baptized could wear it on a t-shirt to remind ourselves.) Still, that description of sainthood is more about what we do and what we desire. Who ARE we?
John’s letter gets at the answer I arrived at by the end of my second summer working with the Vision program. It landed with me through a spiritual that one of the speakers used in his talk: “If anybody asks you who I am, tell ‘em I’m a child of God.” Or in John’s words, “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed.” I often resonate with the image of God as a good parent and myself as a child. So the answer is not so much who I am, but whose. St. Ignatius might put it as, “under whose standard (flag) I choose to stand.” My choices matter to God and to others, of course. Remembering myself as a child of God – a child whom God loves without measure, delights in, collaborates with, and wants to flourish, and a sibling to all of God’s children – it’s certainly easier to choose where I stand.
I find John’s words about being children of God and hidden, in a way, very consoling for all of us saints in training. The high point of Hallowtide would usually be today, All Saints (or All Hallows, bookended by All Hallows Eve and All Souls). This year it’s upended: All Souls falls on a Sunday and receives extra celebration, highlighting the less famous but no less loved and blessed. Let us pray with those whose blessedness we know through their famous stories and miracles. Let us pray with and for those whose blessedness is known only to family and friends. We believe they pray for us, too, and encourage us to become the saints we aspire to be.
Songs for your reflection today:
- Child of God: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps6yhOExsbU The speaker I heard only used the first line, and it was much more solemn as a solo voice than Crocker’s arrangement.
- In Your Dwelling Place: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDovFz4XcYc One of our liturgical favorites for Hallowtide at St. John’s.
- The Saint That Is Just Me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw8W-M1F5Sk A contemporary song about aspiration and humility for all us saints in training.
Molly Mattingly
I grew up in north of Chicago with my parents, brother, and sister. My parents led the 5:00pm Mass music ensemble at my home parish while I was growing up, so you could also say I grew up in a church choir! Music has always been a part of my life, through school choirs, piano lessons, and music ministry. I accompanied and sang in choirs in grade school and at Carmel Catholic High School. During that time, I also swam on my YMCA swim team and worked as a lifeguard and swim instructor at a local park district.
After high school, I studied Music Education and Music Theory at Ithaca College, with an emphasis in piano and choral direction. There I was also co-director of our Catholic Community’s music ministry. I graduated from Ithaca in ’09, and like many of my classmates who graduated the year the recession peaked, was lucky enough to find a place in grad school. I got my Masters in Sacred Music from the University of Notre Dame (go Irish!), where I was involved with the Folk Choir and Notre Dame Vision retreat program. Most recently, I spent two years in Wexford, Ireland as a member and House Director of the House of Brigid, a lay community of young adults dedicated to the renewal of the Church in Ireland through catechesis and music. (Check out their website if you want to see other blog posts I’ve written and see beautiful pictures of Ireland.) And now, my music ministry vocation brought me to Creighton University and St. John’s, where I am the music director at the parish and Campus Ministry!
