The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to contemplate the invitation we all have from God through grace to be saints.
Called to be Saints
The reading from the Book of Revelation identifies the 144,000 who are sealed and the Multitude from every nation.
* [7:1–17] An interlude of two visions precedes the breaking of the seventh seal, just as two more will separate the sixth and seventh trumpets (Rev 10). In the first vision (Rev 7:1–8), the elect receive the seal of the living God as protection against the coming cataclysm; cf. Rev 14:1; Ez 9:4–6; 2 Cor 1:22; Eph 1:13; 4:30. The second vision (Rev 7:9–17) portrays the faithful Christians before God’s throne to encourage those on earth to persevere to the end, even to death.1
Psalm 24 is a prayer for entrance into the Temple.
* [Psalm 24] The Psalm apparently accompanied a ceremony of the entry of God (invisibly enthroned upon the ark), followed by the people, into the Temple. The Temple commemorated the creation of the world (Ps 24:1–2). The people had to affirm their fidelity before being admitted into the sanctuary (Ps 24:3–6; cf. Ps 15). A choir identifies the approaching God and invites the very Temple gates to bow down in obeisance (Ps 24:7–10).2
The reading from the First Letter of John declares that that we should be called children of God and that is what we are.
* [3:1–3] The greatest sign of God’s love is the gift of his Son (Jn 3:16) that has made Christians true children of God. This relationship is a present reality and also part of the life to come; true knowledge of God will ultimately be gained, and Christians prepare themselves now by virtuous lives in imitation of the Son.3
In the Sermon on the Mount, from the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus teaches the Beatitudes.
* [5:3–12] The form Blessed are (is) occurs frequently in the Old Testament in the Wisdom literature and in the psalms. Although modified by Matthew, the first, second, fourth, and ninth beatitudes have Lucan parallels (Mt 5:3 // Lk 6:20; Mt 5:4 // Lk 6:21b; Mt 5:6 // Lk 6:21a; Mt 5:11–12 // Lk 5:22–23). The others were added by the evangelist and are probably his own composition. A few manuscripts, Western and Alexandrian, and many versions and patristic quotations give the second and third beatitudes in inverted order.4
Nicky Santos, S.J. comments that the church places before us the beatitudes in Matthew’s gospel as a path to the holiness that we are called to as disciples of Jesus. During his visit to Sweden in 2016, Pope Francis in his homily on All Saints Day said that the beatitudes are our identity card and call us as followers of Jesus to confront the anxieties and challenges of our times with the spirit and love of Jesus.
During this homily, Pope Francis added six more beatitudes which he felt had relevance today:
◦ Blessed are those who remain faithful while enduring evils inflicted on them by others, and forgive them from their heart.
◦ Blessed are those who look into the eyes of the abandoned and marginalized, and show them their closeness.
◦ Blessed are those who see God in every person, and strive to make others also discover him.
◦ Blessed are those who protect and care for our common home.
◦ Blessed are those who renounce their own comfort in order to help others.
◦ Blessed are those who pray and work for full communion between Christians.5
Don Schwager quotes “Perfect blessedness is humility of spirit,” by Hilary of Poitiers (315-367 AD).
"'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' The Lord taught by way of example that the glory of human ambition must be left behind when he said, 'The Lord your God shall you adore and him only shall you serve' (Matthew 4:10). And when he announced through the prophets that he would choose a people humble and in awe of his words [Isaiah 66:2], he introduced the perfect Beatitude as humility of spirit. Therefore he defines those who are inspired as people aware that they are in possession of the heavenly kingdom... Nothing belongs to anyone as being properly one's own, but all have the same things by the gift of a single parent. They have been given the first things needed to come into life and have been supplied with the means to use them." (excerpt from commentary ON MATTHEW 4.2)6
The Word Among Us Meditation on Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14 comments that as we celebrate the saints today, let’s also celebrate the gift of grace we have all been given by a God whose love for us is unfailing.
Perhaps more than anything else, it’s a person’s faith in the power of God’s grace that makes him or her a saint. Holy men and women know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, how dependent on God they are. So they call on him each day, confident that they can do whatever God asks of them because he has already given them everything they need. Because we are children of God, we can all become saints. Today, thank God for making it possible for you to grow in holiness. Then imitate the saints by asking him for the grace you need, whether for the day ahead or for a particular moment in time. Believe that God will swiftly answer your prayer, and then go ahead and do whatever he asks. “Lord, help me to believe that with your grace, I can become a saint.”7
The Franciscan Media post on All Saints comments that the rededication of the Pantheon, like the earlier commemoration of all the martyrs, occurred in May. Many Eastern Churches still honor all the saints in the spring, either during the Easter season or immediately after Pentecost. How the Western Church came to celebrate this feast, now recognized as a solemnity, in November is a puzzle to historians. The Anglo-Saxon theologian Alcuin observed the feast on November 1 in 800, as did his friend Arno, Bishop of Salzburg. Rome finally adopted that date in the ninth century.
This feast first honored martyrs. Later, when Christians were free to worship according to their consciences, the Church acknowledged other paths to sanctity. In the early centuries the only criterion was popular acclaim, even when the bishop’s approval became the final step in placing a commemoration on the calendar. The first papal canonization occurred in 993; the lengthy process now required to prove extraordinary sanctity took form in the last 500 years. Today’s feast honors the obscure as well as the famous—the saints each of us have known.8
Friar Jude Winkler suggests that what we hear in Revelations is superficial. What we see is profound. Our relationship to God as children is a sign that heaven has already begun through the action of the Spirit. Friar Jude expands the text of the Beatitudes to remind us that God will never abandon us in the counterintuitive lifestyle expressed by Jesus.
The Thinking Faith article “The Book of Revelation: Six homilies for Easter “ comments that the texts read on All Saints, after the seven letters of chapters 2-3, is the breaking of the seven seals which extends over four chapters (4:1-8:1). In the long interval between the sixth and seventh seal, we return to our vision of heaven.
A change has taken place; the difference is the presence of human beings in heaven. Previously these have been counted as numbering 144,000 from the tribes of Israel, but now we realise that they cannot be counted, so many are they. These are the martyrs and they come from every tribe and nation. They suffer no more; their state is described in words from Isaiah: they suffer neither hunger nor thirst (Isaiah 49:10). Once more Christ makes his appearance, this time not just as the Lamb but as their Shepherd. Again we note the parallel with John’s Gospel where we find the fullest self-description of Christ as the Good Shepherd (John 10:11-18).9
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners ministry who connects the idea of the common good with Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom of God.
It is time to reclaim the neglected common good and to learn how faith might help, instead of hurt, in that important task. Our public life could be made better, even transformed or healed, if our religious traditions practiced what they preached in our personal lives; in our families’ decisions; in our work and vocations; in the ministry of our churches, synagogues, and mosques; and in our collective witness. In all these ways we can put the faith community’s influence at the service of this radical neighbor-love ethic that is both faithful to God and the common good.10
The image of our garments washed white in the Blood of the Lamb allows us to continue to be Beatitude people in the grace of children of God.
References
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