Rejoice, for your reward is in heaven
Introduction
On this celebration of All Saints, we ask ourselves: What is our idea of saints? Are they to us idealistic dreamers out of touch with the world and with people, passive and joyless like their plaster statues? Today’s liturgy tells us a different story. They are ordinary people like us, of the same flesh and blood as we. But they had the courage to be different, to do the ordinary things of life in the extraordinary way of Christ from whom they drew their courage. They put us to shame with their quiet but strong gentleness, their integrity, their commitment to God and to people in justice and truth and peace. Let us ask the Lord here with us for the strength to follow him the way they did.
First Reading: Victors With Christ
St. John gives us a vision of hope in the ultimate future: those who live the gospel of will be victorious with him; their number will be immense.
1 Reading Revelations 7:2-4, 9-14
I, John, saw another angel come up from the East,
holding the seal of the living God.
He cried out in a loud voice to the four angels
who were given power to damage the land and the sea,
“Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees
until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.”
I heard the number of those who had been marked with the seal,
one hundred and forty-four thousand marked
from every tribe of the children of Israel.
After this I had a vision of a great multitude,
which no one could count,
from every nation, race, people, and tongue.
They stood before the throne and before the Lamb,
wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.
They cried out in a loud voice:
“Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne,
and from the Lamb.”
All the angels stood around the throne
and around the elders and the four living creatures.
They prostrated themselves before the throne,
worshiped God, and exclaimed:
“Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving,
honor, power, and might
be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”
Then one of the elders spoke up and said to me,
“Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?”
I said to him, “My lord, you are the one who knows.”
He said to me,
“These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress;
they have washed their robes
and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb.”
Responsorial Psalm 24:1bc-2, 3-4ab, 5-6
R. (see 6) Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
The LORD’s are the earth and its fullness;
the world and those who dwell in it.
For he founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD?
or who may stand in his holy place?
One whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean,
who desires not what is vain.
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
He shall receive a blessing from the LORD,
a reward from God his savior.
Such is the race that seeks him,
that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
Second Reading: Children of God
The key to all holiness is love: the certainty that God loves us – he loved us first – and that we are his sons and daughters. This assurance makes us capable of all hope and love.
2 Reading 1 John 3:1-3
Beloved:
See what love the Father has bestowed on us
that we may be called the children of God.
Yet so we are.
The reason the world does not know us
is that it did not know him.
Beloved, we are God’s children now;
what we shall be has not yet been revealed.
We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is.
Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure,
as he is pure.
Alleluia Matthew 11:28
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest, says the Lord.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel: The Beatitudes: God’s Values
The values of the gospel differ sharply from those of the world, yet they are to be lived in the world to make it God’s world. The beatitudes are the inspiration of a Christian’s life.
Gospel Matthew 5:1-12a
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain,
and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him.
He began to teach them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the land.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you
and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.
Rejoice and be glad,
for your reward will be great in heaven.”
Commentary
There are saints whom the whole world knows and loves. There are saints who are known only locally, within a particular region and among a specific population. But there are saints, totally unknown to the world, but fully known to God. If no sparrow falls to the ground without God knowing it and every hair on our head is counted, God knows every holy whisper of the hearts of those who love him, how insignificant they seem to be in the eyes of the world. It is this great crowd of witnesses, from every nation, race, people, and tongue that John sees in his vision. It may include my grandfather, neighbor, colleague, housekeeper, and even my enemy—people who looked so ordinary that I never considered them to be holy. It is their memory the Church honors today. The Triumphant Church.
Bishop Fulton J. Sheen spoke of three surprises that awaited him in heaven: First, he would find in heaven many people whom he had never imagined to find there; second, he would not find in heaven many whom he had expected to see there; and finally, the surprise of all surprises, he would find himself in heaven! The Solemnity of All Saints is a feast of hope for us. For, we are all called to be saints.
Blessing
The saints were people like us,
weak, with faults like the ones we have;
only, they did not take these failings for granted.
They led the same lives as we do,
only in a more courageous way.
We are called to the same holiness
to which God called them.
May you respond to God’s call
with the strength and blessing
of the almighty and loving God:
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.
Let us go with the saints and with one another
the way to God. R/ Thanks be to God.