Introduction
Today we celebrate the memory of all the baptized who have gone before us and whose lives were virtuous. We keep the memory of all these, not just those who have been formally canonized as saints.
The Feast of All Saints began in the early centuries as the “Feast of All Holy Martyrs,” a remembrance of martyrs whose names were not known and who therefore did not have their own festivities. It was introduced in the year 610 by Pope Boniface IV, when the Roman Emperor, Phocas, made a gift of the ancient pagan temple of the Pantheon to the Church. Initially celebrated on May 13, it was transferred to November 1 for the universal Church by Pope Gregory IV in 835, and by then it included all the saints.
The reason for the new date may have been a practical one. It seems that so many pilgrims came to Rome for the feast that it was moved to the fall when more food would be available after the harvest.
1st 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.”
Revelation is the last book of the Bible and one of the most difficult to understand. It is filled with unfamiliar and extravagant symbolism borrowed extensively from the Old Testament. Symbolism is a chief characteristic of apocalyptic literature, which was very popular in both Jewish and Christian circles from about 200 BC to 200 AD. This genre is unfamiliar to us because it is no longer being created; this is analogous to ancient writers evaluating comic strips or westerns.
We have two examples of apocalyptic writing in the Bible: the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation. Saint John wrote Revelation around 95 AD, while he was in exile on the island of Patmos, a Roman penal colony.
In today’s reading, John relates two apocalyptic visions that were granted to him. Although they differ, when placed together, the second adds dimension to the first. Both visions depict vast assemblies of the righteous (aka saints). They are simultaneously a warning, an assurance, and a promise.
I, John, saw another angel come up from the East,
The first vision pictures the People of God on earth placed under God’s protection against coming adversity. It’s important to understand the vision in the context of how Jewish thinkers understood the world at the time the book was written. They thought of the earth as flat, resting on the sea, and square.
The verse immediately preceding this passage tells us there are destructive winds at the earth’s four corners, which are being held back by angels: “I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth so that no wind could blow on land or sea or against any tree.”
In the East was an angel of protection. The East, being the source of the sunrise, was the direction from which the Messiah was expected to come.
holding the seal of the living God.
The seal was probably a signet ring, used to mark official documents or important possessions. Whatever was marked by the impression of one’s signet ring belonged to that person and was under his protection.
He cried out in a loud voice to the four angels who were given power to damage the land and the sea,
The four angels have been given destructive power in the form of releasing the terrible winds.
“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.”
The angel in the East commands restraint so that the vast assembly can be sealed with the seal of God, and presumably be spared from the cataclysm.
This is similar to Ezekiel 9:4-6, where a sign was placed on the foreheads of some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, protecting them from the disastrous fate of the city.
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.
John does not claim that he saw the ritual of sealing in his vision, only that he heard the number of those who were sealed.
The number 144,000 is clearly a symbolic number, not an actual one. It is the number twelve squared and then multiplied by one thousand. In Hebrew numerology, twelve is a perfect number and stands for completeness or fullness. The second twelve represents the original tribes of Israel (and, some say, the twelve apostles). One thousand is a very large number; multiplying by one thousand implies that the number is impossible to count.
This number, then, symbolizes the ideal Israel: Israel as it was meant to be, in all its perfection, symmetry, and completeness. It also describes the Church.
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,
The second vision begins, set in the divine throne room in heaven.
Note the universality of this second multitude: every nation, race, people, and tongue. This is probably an allusion to the countless descendants promised to Abraham (Genesis 15:5; Hebrews 11:12), and certainly an acknowledgment that Christ came to save the entire world.
wearing white robes
The wearing of white symbolizes purity — a life cleansed from sin — along with holiness and victory (see Revelation 3:5).
and holding palm branches in their hands.
Conquerors used to hold palms as a symbol of their triumph. The faithful servants of God are represented as victors, having fought the good fight of faith and finished their course.
The word phoinix, translated as “palm,” occurs only two times in the New Testament: here, and in the story of Palm Sunday in the Gospel of John (12:13).
They cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb.”
The multitude acknowledges that victory was not won by their own merits, but comes as a blessing from God through the agency of the Lamb.
All the angels stood around the throne and around the elders
This hearkens back to Revelation 4:4, which describes twenty-four elders wearing white garments and gold crowns. Later, Revelation 21:12-14 describes them as being the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles of Christ.
and the four living creatures.
Revelation 4:7 depicts these four living creatures as resembling a lion, a calf, a human, and an eagle. They symbolize, respectively, what is noblest, strongest, wisest, and swiftest in all of creation.
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.
The angels, elders, and four living creatures represent all of creation. They pay homage to God and to the Lamb with a traditional song of praise, many of which are found throughout Revelation. In fact, Revelation has more hymns than the rest of the New Testament combined.
Amen.”
Their exclamation of praise begins and ends with “amen,” which means “so be it!” or “it is true!”
Then one of the elders spoke up and said to me, “Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?”
The elder asks a question, not for his own information, but to prompt John to consider the question for purposes of his instruction. Jesus taught in a similar way when he asked the apostles in Mark 8:28-29, “Who do people say that I am?”
I said to him, “My lord, you are the one who knows.”
John tacitly acknowledges his own ignorance; he knows that even the lowest saint in heaven knows more than any apostle in the world.
He said to me, “These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress;
Ancient Israel’s tradition held that a great eschatological tribulation (thlípsis) will precede the dawning age of fulfillment.
Revelation was written as resistance literature in response to the ruthless persecution of the early church by the Roman authorities. This oppression was most likely seen in the context of thlípsis.
they have washed their robes and made them white
This is baptismal imagery. Baptism is the seal with which our souls are marked by God.
in the Blood of the Lamb.”
A reference to the atoning efficacy of the blood of the sacrificial lamb.
By presenting these faithful ones as reigning victorious with Jesus in heaven, the author is teaching two important truths:
1) Those who have died are not dead, nor have they been defeated. Because they were faithful to Jesus and followed Jesus through death, they have also followed him into new life. They are already giving praise to God in heaven.
2) Those who are still alive on earth should choose fidelity and death over infidelity and a longer life on earth.
Despite its being written to address a specific crisis, Revelation remains valid and meaningful for Christians of all time. In the face of any apparently insuperable evil, all Christians are called to trust in Jesus’ promise: Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age (Matthew 28:20).
2nd 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.
According to tradition dating back to the 2nd century, Saint John wrote his three letters (1 John, 2 John, and 3 John) in Ephesus, on his return from exile on the island of Patmos, around 95-96 AD.
In today’s reading, Saint John is probing the mystery of God’s love that was revealed through Jesus Christ.
Beloved: See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God.
The first of two themes in this reading is the love God has for believers. The specific kind of love referenced here (agápē in Greek) is transformative; it transforms believers into children of God.
“The grace of our Creator is so great that He has allowed us both to know Him and to love Him, and moreover, to love Him as children love a wonderful father. It would be no small thing if we were able to love God in the way that a servant loves his master or a worker his employer. But loving God as father is much greater still.” [Saint Bede the Venerable (died 735 AD), On 1 John]
Yet so we are.
It is amazing to realize that we are God’s children, “yet so we are.”
The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
As children of God, we are a new reality, re-created as God’s children. Thus we are not accepted by the world, the old reality. The world, which is subject to sin, recognizes only its own. It did not recognize the Son of God, and it does not recognize these new children of God.
The implication: believers should expect the same kind of rejection, and possibly persecution, that Christ endured.
Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed.
The second theme of the reading is introduced: eschatological fulfillment. Using the “now but not yet” formula of Christian eschatology, the author explains that believers have been reborn as children of God (“now”), but the transformation isn’t complete (“not yet”).
Not only is the transformation incomplete, it is beyond our comprehension to understand what this truth means for our future.
We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
This sentence is constructed in Greek with a verb that has no subject. As such, it is unclear what is being revealed, the transformation from the previous verse or Christ himself.
Regardless, the theological intent is the same: the believers are promised an even fuller identification with God. They will not only be his children, they will be like him, and as such, will see God as God is.
There is a Hellenist influence here: the Greeks believed that a reality can only be understood by a reality that is similar to it. We will understand God more deeply because we will be more similar to him.
Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure.
Seeing and understanding God is what every Christian strives for; however, this vision is a hope, not a certainty. For their part, believers must do what they can to pattern their lives after the purity of God.
“Note that John uses the present tense when he talks about our need to purify ourselves. The practice of virtue is an ongoing thing and has its own inner dynamic. If we stop living this way or put it off until some future time, there is nothing virtuous about that at all.” [Theophylact (died 1108 AD), Commentary on 1 John]
As we celebrate the feast of All Saints, we honor our ancestors, relatives, and friends who lived in fidelity to their relationship of covenant love with God. We also aspire to become saints ourselves. The more we center our lives on Jesus Christ and the knowledge of God’s love that Jesus revealed to us, the more we are able to accept Jesus’ salvation and grow in holiness.
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.”
Today we hear the Beatitudes, which Jesus gave as the first part of the Sermon on the Mount. In it, Jesus announces the themes of invitation and promise for all people to become saints.
A beatitude, or macarism, is a type of wisdom teaching that draws a connection between a behavior and its associated consequences. Most if not all of the sentiments expressed here are found elsewhere in Jewish teaching.
For depth and breadth of thought, this passage is on a level with the Ten Commandments of the Old Covenant and the Lord’s Prayer of the New Covenant. However, the Beatitudes surpass both of the others in its poetical beauty.
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,
This mountaintop setting is why this speech is called the Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus is teaching both the disciples and the crowd, as can be seen at the end of the Sermon (Matthew 7:28).
saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
The word translated as “blessed” is makários, a complex term that conveys multiple levels of goodness: joy, happiness, serenity, and loveliness.
The first beatitude outlines the connection between poverty and the soul. This religious concept of poverty has more to do with a religious attitude of neediness and of humility towards God than with material poverty, as seen by the qualifier “in spirit.”
A person is poor in spirit when they have recourse to God without relying on his own merits and who trusts in God’s mercy to be saved.
This religious attitude of poverty is closely related to what is called “spiritual childhood.” A Christian sees themselves as a little child in the presence of God, a child who owns nothing: everything they have comes from God and belongs to God. Spiritual poverty means being detached from material things.
Blessed are they who mourn,
The second and fourth beatitudes address inner turmoil. Those who mourn are those who suffer from any kind of affliction and who bear their suffering with love and with a spirit of atonement. We can also interpret this mourning as grief over our brokenness and ineptitude as humans who so easily fall into sin. Grief in us develops compassion for others.
The Beatitudes are not “entrance requirements” for the kingdom of God, but rather the qualities which with God’s blessing will come to full fruition when the kingdom is fully inaugurated.
for they will be comforted.
The Spirit of God will console with peach and joy, even in this life, those who weep for their sins, and later he will give them a share in the fullness of happiness and glory in heaven.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.
The meek are those who patiently suffer unjust persecution; those who remain serene, humble, and steadfast in adversity and do not give way to resentment or discouragement.
The virtue of meekness is very necessary in the Christian life. Usually irritableness, which is very common, stems from a lack of humility and interior peace.
“The land” they will inherit is generally understood to be our heavenly fatherland.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.
The notion of righteousness (or justice) in Holy Scripture is an essentially religious one. A righteous person is one who sincerely strives to do the will of God. Righteousness, in the language of the Bible, is the same as what is today called “holiness.”
In his Commentary on Matthew (5, 6) Saint Jerome teaches that in this beatitude, God is asking us not simply to have a vague desire for righteousness: we should hunger and thirst for it, that is, we should love and strive earnestly to seek what makes a person righteous in God’s eyes.
Essentially, God thirsts for us to thirst for him.
We should want holiness as much as we want food and water.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Mercy is the disposition that God has for sinners (Exodus 34:6-7). Mercy means being understanding towards the defects of others, overlooking them, helping them cope with them, and loving them despite whatever defects they may have.
Those who seek mercy from God are required by God to extend it to others. This is a repetitive theme throughout the Old Testament and was also taught by Jesus (Matthew 18:21-35).
Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.
Christ teaches us that the source of the quality of human acts lies in the heart, that is, in a man’s soul, in the depth of his spirit.
“When we speak of a person’s heart, we refer not just to his sentiments, but to the whole person in his loving dealings with others. In order to help us understand divine things, Scripture uses the expression ‘heart’ in its full meaning, as the summary and source, expression and ultimate basis, of one’s thoughts, words, and actions. A man is worth what his heart is worth” (Saint Jose Escrivá, Christ Is Passing By, 164).
Cleanness of heart is a gift of God, which expresses itself in a capacity to love, in having an upright and pure attitude to everything noble. As Saint Paul says, “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8).
Helped by God’s grace, Christians should strive to cleanse their heart and acquire this purity, the reward for which is the vision of God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Peace and tranquil order have been God’s desire for us from the beginning. Our sin disrupted this order and destroyed the peace.
Peacemakers are those who foster peace, in themselves and in others, and who, as a basis for that, try to be reconciled and to reconcile others with God.
Being at peace with God is the cause and the effect of every kind of peace. Those who work to re-establish God’s peace will be known as his children. “They shall be called sons of God” is a Hebraism often found in Sacred Scripture.
We should note that the Beatitudes are not addressing distinct groups of people (the poor in spirit vs. the meek vs. the hungry): these are not different people or kinds of people, but different demands made on everyone who wants to be a disciple of Christ.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Commitment to Jesus and to his cause is bound to bring insult and persecution. Circumstances arise in a Christian’s life that call for heroism, where no compromise is acceptable: either one stays true to Jesus Christ no matter the cost, or one denies him.
Those who remain true to Christ will inherit the kingdom of heaven, a kingdom that is not of this world.
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.
There are only eight beatitudes; this is an expansion of the previous verse. It is an exhortation to persevere through the challenges Jesus has described.
The Beatitudes are acutely paradoxical. In the time of Jesus, the people who were considered blessed were those who were financially well-off, who had healthy children, and who were respected by others in society. To lack these things would cause suffering, and suffering was viewed as punishment for sin. To claim that the poor, the sorrowful, and the hungry were blessed was to challenge the accepted beliefs of the time.
The Beatitudes challenge all people, poor or rich, marginalized or influential, to live the gospel. Everyone is called to become a single-hearted disciple of Jesus Christ and a witness of God’s love to others, especially to those in need.
We have a term for those who succeed in doing this: saints.
Connections and Themes
- Today’s readings center around the saints of God.
- The first reading is John’s heavenly vision of a multitude of victorious believers, worshiping God in perfect harmony with the angels.
- The second reading paints a hopeful picture of eschatological fulfillment, for those striving to attain it.
- The gospel gives us Christ’s teaching on what it means to be holy, through the Beatitudes.
- Who exactly are these saints of God? They are all those who have been baptized into Christ, who have “washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb.” While they have lived lives of virtue, we must remember that sanctity is not an accumulation of merit, but rather a gift that comes with baptism to be nurtured throughout life.
- Our focus today is not only on our own hopeful journey toward sainthood but an appreciation of others who have blessed our lives with their holiness. Perhaps our lives have been enriched by saintly parents, friends, or colleagues. Perhaps we have been lifted up by those we barely know, such as heroic members of the armed forces. Many have been inspired by the lives of saints who lived long ago. Today is a day to remember and celebrate their holiness.
- Our baptism, and the identity it gives us as children of God, is a blessing. However, it also carries with it a challenge to live up to that identity. The saints who have gone before us have met that challenge, and the Church reminds us of them so that they may guide and inspire us.
- The rewards for living out God’s will for us are both immediate and eternal, as well as truly great. In the paradoxical description of the virtuous provided by the Beatitudes, we also see a description of Christ. Similarly, John’s letter promises us that not only will we see God as he is, in all his glory, but we will be “like him.” Is there a more powerful hope we can hold?
Sunday Readings 