November 1, 2019, is the Solemnity of All Saints. In the Entrance Antiphon we pray: “Let us rejoice in the Lord as we celebrate the feast day in honor of all the saints, at whose festival the angels rejoice and praise the Son of God. Amen.”
All Saints Day is the day on which we, Catholics, celebrate all the saints, known and unknown. It is a surprisingly old feast in the Church. It arose out of the Christian tradition of celebrating the martyrdom of saints on the anniversary of their martyrdom. When martyrdoms increased during the persecutions of the late Roman Empire, local dioceses instituted a common feast day in order to ensure that all martyrs, known and unknown, were properly honored.
By the late fourth century, this common feast was celebrated in Antioch, and Saint Ephrem, the Syrian, mentioned it in a sermon he preached in 373 AD. In the early centuries, this feast was celebrated in the Easter season, and the Eastern Churches, both Catholic and Orthodox, still celebrate it then.
The current date of November 1 was instituted by Pope Gregory III (731-741), when he consecrated a chapel to all the martyrs in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and ordered an annual celebration. This celebration was originally confined to the Diocese of Rome, but Pope Gregory IV (827-844) extended the feast to the entire Church and ordered it to be celebrated on November 1.
The first reading of this day is from the Apocalypse or the Revelation of Saint John. In it, the evangelist John shows us visions that illustrate God’s protection of Christians and the happy circumstances of martyrs. He depicts the victory of the whole Church, made of countless people from the four corners of the world. It is a consoling and encouraging description of heaven as a place where those who believe and adore God on earth will find room among the huge multitude standing before God. In the second reading from the first letter of John, we learn that we are all children of God, who must try to be like God till we see Him face to face. In the Gospel from Matthew, we listen to Christ’s famous Sermon on the Mount in which he gives us the golden rules that lead to perfection.
Let us pray in the course of this Eucharist for the grace to love God with all our hearts, minds and souls so that when our time on earth runs out, we too will join the countless multitude of our brothers and sisters who are now standing before God in heaven.
First Reading: Revelation 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."
Comment
Saint John and his brother Saint James are usually referred to as the “sons of Zebedee” to whom Jesus later gave the name “Boarnages” or “sons of thunder” (Mk 3:17) because of their fiery and violent nature. For example, when a Samaritan village refuses to receive Jesus and his disciples, the two brothers suggested that our Lord should bring fire down from heaven to consume them. In response, our Lord rebukes them and they continue on their journey to Jerusalem (Lk 9: 54-55).
In addition to the Book of Apocalypse or Revelation, from where the first reading of this day is taken, John also authored the Fourth Gospel, the Gospel according to John. He also wrote three Epistles which, according to tradition that dates back to the second century, were written in Ephesus, on John’s return from exile on the Greek island of Patmos around the years 95-96 AD. According to Saint Ireneaus, John spent the last years of his life in Ephesus which at the time was the capital of the Roman province of Asia. From there, John ruled over the various churches of Asia Minor whose names are given in the Book of Revelation (Rev 2:3).
The Apocalypse, or the Book of Revelation, is the last book of Sacred Scripture and is the only prophetical book in the New Testament. The Church makes frequent use of it, particularly in the Liturgy, to sing the praises of the risen Lord and the splendor of the heavenly Jerusalem, which symbolizes the Church in the glory of heaven.
Even though this letter is said to be addressed to the seven churches that are in Asia, it is in fact addressed to the whole Church. It seeks to alert Christians to the grave dangers which threaten faith, while consoling and encouraging those who are suffering tribulation, particularly due to the fierce and long-drawn-out persecution mounted by the Roman Emperor Domitian in which many Christians lost their lives. Christians also suffered persecution from the part of both Jews and pagans. The systematic persecution of Christians continued up to the fourth century, when Constantine became Emperor of Rome and brought peace and stability, which enabled Christianity to thrive.
In the passage selected for our meditation, we see two visions, one portrays God’s protection of Christians and the other reveals the happy circumstances of those who suffer martyrdom for Christ. An angel puts the seal on the foreheads of a hundred and forty thousand selected from the 12 tribes of Israel, which could symbolize Christians of Jewish background who are called to salvation. John mentions the number who will be saved at 144,000. Even though some Christian groups have taken this number as the actual count of those to be saved, it is evident both from the general way large numbers are used in the Bible and from what follows that this is merely a symbolic number. This is far from being the number that is saved for John follows it up with the encouraging and consoling image of a huge multitude of people, impossible to count, that is standing in front of God expressing their gratitude for their salvation. The number to be saved is innumerable. As Saint Paul tells Timothy, “God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4).
In a homily he gave on November 1, 1981, Saint John Paul II commented on this passage as follows: “The people dressed in white robes whom John sees with his prophetic eye are the redeemed, and they form a ‘great multitude’, which no one could count and which is made up of people of the most varied backgrounds. The blood of the Lamb, who has been offered in sacrifice for all, has exercised a universal and most effective redemptive power in every corner of the earth, extending grace and salvation to that great multitude. After undergoing the trials and being purified in the blood of Christ, they – the redeemed – are now safe in the Kingdom of God, whom they praise and bless forever and ever.”
In this crowd, brothers and sisters, are found all those who have been saved, not only the martyrs. In it, stand your and my loved ones and friends who have gone ahead of us marked with the sign of faith. We rejoice and are glad for them because they are now in heaven waiting for us to join them when our own time on earth runs out. We make our prayer through Christ our Lord, Amen.
Second 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.
Comment
John’s First Letter can be divided into three parts. Part One (chapters 1&2) talks of the holy life of the Christian which is made possible by the fact that the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sins. Part Two, made up of Chapter Three, from where our reading comes, centers on the fact that we, as Christians, are children of God. Part Three (chapters 4-5), highlights God as love. All genuine love comes from God and our union with God is founded on love.
In the passage selected for our meditation, the Apostle urges us to contemplate the marvelous gifts of God to us as his children. The Holy Spirit, who is the author of all Sacred Scripture, has desired John to pass on to us this unique revelation, which is that we are all children of God.
In the words of Saint Jose Maria Escriva de Ballaguer, the founder of the Opus Dei, “We do not exist in order to pursue just any happiness. We have been called to penetrate the intimacy of God’s own life, to know and love God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and to love also – in that same love of the one God in three divine Persons – the angels and all men.”
Saint John tells us that Christian hope, which is grounded on Christ, is something active that moves Christians to purify themselves. And how do we purify ourselves? We must purify ourselves from sin through a good confession. Our model is Jesus Christ, who is pure because he has never sinned. To quote Saint Jose Maria again: “We have to learn from Jesus, who is our only model. If you want to go forward without stumbling or wandering off the path, then all you have to do is walk the road he walked, placing your feet in his footprints and entering into his humble and patient Heart, there to drink from the wellsprings of his commandments and of his love. In a word, you must identify yourself with Jesus Christ and try to become really and truly another Christ among your fellow men.”
Let us pray: Lord Jesus, sanctify us and make us worthy to become your sons and daughters so we can continue to praise your name now and forever. Amen.
Gospel: Matthew 5: 1-12.
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."
Comment
In today’s Gospel, Saint Matthew gives us a summary of Jesus’ teaching in the beatitudes. To the inner circle of his chosen followers and the great crowds that have come from many parts, Jesus recognizes as blessed a wide range of people, from the poor in spirit to those persecuted for their faith. Christ promises holiness to those who are detached from the things of the world; to those who are self-sacrificing for others; to those are longing for God and for those who are working for peace so God’s kingdom can expand among men and women, who live in peace and harmony with each other. The Sermon on the Mount gives us an orientation to Christian existence.
Saints are people who grew in God’s love during their life on earth and are now standing before God and the Lamb in heaven, seeing God and Christ face to face. They are people who took the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount to heart and followed in the footsteps of Christ and have now joined the company of the blessed ones in God’s glory. Today, they are our benefactors. They pray for us, intercede for us and bring God’s blessings upon us. Through them the world becomes better, more human and more livable.
The saints, that is, our fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, friends and loved ones, who have gone ahead of us marked with a sign of faith, put their trust in God, when they were with us, and did his will and collected treasures for God’s kingdom. When faced with troubles and turmoil of life, they were not disappointed, rather they turned to Christ and placed all their burdens on him. They followed Christ’s invitation in these comforting words he put in the mouth of the evangelist, Matthew: “Come to me all you who labour and are burdened and I will give you rest” (Mt. 11:28).
The saints were people like you and me who fought against the power of darkness (Eph 6:12) and led others to God. They are our examples, our helpers, patrons and path-makers on our pilgrimage to the Father’s house in heaven. As we celebrate their feast day today, let us ask them to help us to follow their examples in our effort to join them in heaven. Let us rejoice in the saints we have known and those we know because some of them are still very much alive. And who are those? They are those who hunger and thirst for what is right and promote peace, justice and reconciliation in our midst; they are those who show mercy and pray for their persecutors. These are people who enliven the history of our Church with their quiet witness. Some live quiet, anonymous and unassuming lives but Jesus knows them all by name. They are his people, the Saints. And they are among us today.
On this Solemnity, we pray in the Preface of the Mass: “Father, today we keep the festival of your holy city, the heavenly Jerusalem. Our brothers and sisters the saints now sing your praises forever around your throne and their glory fills us with joy. Our communion with them through your Church gives us inspiration and strength as we hasten on our pilgrimage of faith, eager to meet them. We make our prayer through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.”
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