A GREAT CLOUD OF WITNESSES

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,...”  (Hebrews 12:1 NIV)

Geddes MacGregor in “The Rhythm of God” tells of a priest who, when asked, “How many people were at the early celebration of the Eucharist last Wednesday morning?” replied, “There were three old ladies, the janitor, several thousand archangels, a large number of seraphim, and several million of the triumphant saints of God.” Such a 'cloud of witnesses' answers a deep human urge to be part of something larger, to not stand alone, to give our little lives meaning. One drop of water, left alone, evaporates quickly. But one drop of water in the immense sea endures.

-- Kathy Coffey in “God in the Moment: Making Every Day a Prayer”


#4707

THE TESTIMONY OF THE SAINTS

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,…”  (Hebrews 12:1 NRSV)

Saints are never once-upon-a-time characters, stuck in the annals of history. They live and breathe when we retell their stories. But more than that, we Christians have this keen sense that these saints, even those who have died, are truly alive. They are with God. They seem, mysteriously enough, more alive now than they were during the life demarcated by their births and deaths -- and they were very much alive then, pulsating with the very life of God. They know that this life is not all there is. For them, the window into the future has been flung open, and they want to testify to us, stretching our imaginations and bequeathing us their courage.

-- James C. Howell in “Servants, Misfits, and Martyrs”


#4455

JOURNEYING WITH OTHERS

None of us on the Christian path travels alone; we always journey with others at our side, before us, and trailing behind us. A great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1), a communion of saints both living and departed, surrounds us. There is no such thing as a solitary Christian, which is both a descriptive reality and a great grace. To be a Christian means we are part of the body of Christ. The local communities in which we live out faith give faces and names to our companions on the journey.

Authentic Christianity is an intensely personal matter, for the living Christ invades us at the core of our beings. But it is never a private affair just between us and God. The broader Christian community provides the means of support to stay on the road and the corrective against going down our own paths of self-obsession and sometimes self-destruction.

-- Kenda Creasy Dean and Ron Foster in The Godbearing Life

#3900