INTRODUCTION
The Creed of the Church professes the communion of saints as an article of faith. And the Catechism of the Catholic Church calls them “A cloud of witnesses” who left great signs of holiness here on earth and now contemplate God in heaven, and constantly care for those they left here on earth (CCC 2683).
The Church recognises them as heroes and heroines of faith, our heavenly mediators and the instruments that God uses to work miracles in our daily lives. Just as the staff of Moses (Ex. 4; 14; Nb. 20), the bones of the prophet Elisha (II Kgs 13:21), the towel of Paul (Acts: 19:12) and the shadow of Peter (Acts 5:15), the relics and the objects of holy men and women serve great purposes in the Church’s invocation of their intercession.
For Roman Catholics, the Orthodox, and to some extent, the Anglicans, “All Saints Day” is a day, not only to remember the saints and to thank God for them, but also to pray for their help. It is, as well, a day to glorify Jesus Christ, who by his holy life and death has made the saints holy. This feast offers a challenge to each one of us: anybody can, with the grace of God, become a saint, regardless of his or her age, lifestyle or living conditions. St. Augustine accepted this challenge when he asked the question: “Si iste et ista, cur non ego?” (If he and she can become saints, why can’t I?) Fr. Anthony Kadavil).
Historically, Pope Boniface IV was the first to institute All Saints Day on May 13 in 609 AD when he dedicated the Pantheon in Rome as a church in honor of the Virgin Mary and all martyrs, though without any intention of making it a universal celebration.
It was later established by Pope Gregory III during his reign (731-741 AD) as a feast limited in Rome.
Finally, in the year 837 AD, Pope Gregory IV ordered the official observance of All Saints Day every November 1 and extended its celebration to the entire Church.
FIRST READING : Revelation 7: 2-4, 9-14
If we take the reflection of this passage of the Apocalypse of St. John from the verse 1, it will offer us a good taste and holistic understanding of the whole passage.
The whole scene is an account of the vision of the Apostle John expressed with the language and the conception of the world peculiar to his days.
The planet earth was considered to be square, flat and having four corners. In this apocalyptic vision, John tells of the four angels waiting to unleash the winds of destruction from these four corners of the earth. This imagery of the four corners of the earth was equally present in the language of Isaiah when he spoke of gathering the outcasts of Judah from the four corners of the earth (Isaiah 11:12). Even the Apocalypse of Ezekiel conceived the end as to come from the four corners of the earth (Ezekiel 7:2).
The phenomenon of wind spoken of by John at the beginning of our chapter 7 of meditation and the action of the angels holding the four winds from blowing over the land, sea or tree suggests the belief of the ancient people that the winds which came from the north, south, east and west were all in themselves favourable winds; but that those which blew diagonally across the earth were harmful. Thus the angels were positioned at the corners of the earth to unleash the winds to blow diagonally because it was the common belief that all the forces of nature were under the charge of angels. That is why St. John equally spoke about the angel of the fire (Revelation 14:18) and the angel of the waters (Revelation 16:5).
Before the destruction takes place, our first reading today says that:
(i) The angel with the seal comes from the rising of the sun, from the East. John’s account is full of symbols and meanings. A. The EAST as used by the Apostle could possibly mean a mere reference to the East as where light and life arise. Thus, it was the angel who was at this corner that called on the other angels not to destroy the earth yet. The presence of this angel suggests how God still gives life and light to his people even when death and destruction are in view.
B. The use of the EAST is equally suggestive of the great moment of the birth of Jesus and how his star rose from the east indicating the birth of a life; the star that led them to Palestine searching for the king who is to be born: “We have seen his star in the East” (Matthew 2:2).
(ii) This angel was bearing in his hands the seal of the living God. The concept of the living God is so much espoused by the holy writers. They use it often as a contra-distinction to the dead gods of the heathen especially when writing within a context whereby the chosen people of God are surrounded by politheists nations as a way to project their mind towards the uniqueness of the God of Israel.
Our passage quickly connects us to a vision of glory:
“…a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands” (Rv 7:9). Here we have the beginning of the vision of the future blessedness of the martyrs.
It is John’s beatific vision of the Heavenly Jerusalem populated by innumerable number of people that have passed through the great tribulation and have washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb, and now sing the song of victory. This is a crowd of people from every race, people and nation. It is the Church of the saved that entered into the joy of the Lord. The Apostle John calls them the blessed. These blessed are the poor, the afflicted, those who suffered hunger and thirst and were persecuted because of justice. But is is interesting that the evangelist now describes them with a different language. They did not appear any more weary, battered and worn out, rather they appeared victorious in the presence of God and of the Lamb whom they bore witness to. St. John represents them in two symbolic ways:
1. They now wear white robe. It is the sign of victory in exchange of their former red robe of suffering and martyrdom. In the ancient Rome, the war generals were used to celebrating their triumph clothed in white garment.
2. They bear palm branches in their hands. It is also the sign of victory. It reminds us of the great revolutionary victory of the Maccabees. When Jerusalem was freed from the desecration of Antiochus Epiphanes, the people entered in with branches and fair boughs and palms and psalms (2 Maccabees 10:7). Torah law also mandates their use at the Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:40), and its symbolic use was made more evident at the triumphal entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem as we commemorate on Palm Sundays (John 12:13).
These glorious martyrs joined with the great host of heaven to form a concentric ring and circle and received the great privilege to intone this time around the song of victory and of worship to the One seated on the throne and to the Lamb.
And in unison with all the inhabitants of heaven they filled the heaven with songs of praise ascribing blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honour, power, and strength to the Ones seated on the throne.
The passage describes this throng of people as having washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb. It sounds odd to the ear that the Lamb’s blood could whiten the robes. In any case, John was making allusion to the spiritual impact of the ritual sacrifice of the lamb which dates back to the sacrificial system of the Old Testament, where the blood of goats, or bulls or lambs provided the spiritual purification required for atonement of sins. And He replaces this old ritual with the once and for all sacrifice of Christ on the cross which superseded the blood of animals. Right from the very first page of his writings, John already acknowledged the power of the Lamb-Jesus who takes away sins: “Ecce Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi” (John 1:29).
These white robes stand for purity of the saints who have been freed from the taint of past sin, the infection of present sin and the attack of future sin because they accepted the atonement that Christ offers; the atonement made available in and only through the blood of the Lamb. It is the only blood that cleanses from all sin (1 John 1:7). It is the blood that expiates our sins (Romans 3:25). It is the blood that makes us just (Romans 5:9). It is the blood of our redemption (Ephesians 1:7), without blemish and without spot (1 Peter 1:19). It is the blood that seals our peace pact with God (Colossians 1:20), and purges our conscience from dead works to serve the living God (Hebrews 9:14).
Let us not lose sight of the fact that these white robed Saints include the Saints of the Old Testament, starting with the righteous Abel and the faithful Patriarch, Abraham, those of the New Testament, the numerous early Christian Martyrs and the Blesseds and Saints of later centuries, to the witnesses of Christ in this epoch of ours. (Pope Benedict).
SECOND READING: 1 John 3: 1-3
The Apostle John remarks: “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (I Jn 3: 1).
St. John tells us that to be “Saints” means to be “children of God”—and then he adds: “so we are”! This is a profound and consoling truth which unites us with the condition of the blessed. The Apostle affirms that we are already what we will become one day that is, sons of God. The essential is already in our possession; the reign of God has already started taking place in us, thanks to our quality as sons of God and co-heirs with Christ. In this we are already in communion of Saints.
Woe betide if we depart from this great privilege. We are, yes, sons of God by baptism, yet we are not stably and irreversibly. We are still exposed to danger of decay from that condition that tend to suppress the growing of the seed of God in us. This is why we have to work out our salvation is fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12), and to do good while we still have time (Gal. 6:9). The difference between us and the saints is exactly this: we are in time and we have time which the Saints who have preceded us do not have again. If there is something they could desire and be envious us, then it is time: it is the time to love more, to be probably holier than they desired and worked for and to become more similar to the Lamb without spot, without blemish (Christ). We have the time but we do not know how much time we have and till when. It is up to us to decide what we want to do with our time as long as we still have it either to leave it to pass away or to use it to make out something that will last. The Apostle John would say, “Walk while you still have light” (Jn. 12:35). This Word of Jesus told through the Apostle could be reiterated to mean: walk, while you still have time!
GOSPEL: Matthew: 5: 1-12
The Gospel reading today popularly known as the Sermon on the Mount has both a temporary significance as well as an extraterrestrial undertone. It announces both the type of life the Christians are supposed to live here on earth while at the same time projecting it as a glorious end. We recall that the chapter 4 of the Gospel of Matthew brings the hidden life of Jesus to a close with the famous narrative of the temptation in the wilderness and the first step to a public ministry. Now, the chapter 5 of our meditation today introduces us to what serves as the first public official instruction of Jesus to his disciples. His newly recruited disciples might have been carried away by their first sight of the miracles He performed in the previous chapter, but Jesus seized the opportunity to define the true meaning of the mission and identity of a disciple.
Matthew seems to place two categories of people in one scene. He places Jesus and his disciples on the Mount and the large crowds who followed Jesus, coming from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judaea and Transjordan (Mt 4:25) at the foot of the Mount. We recall that mountain in the Old Testament represents a place of theophany. God manifested himself severely to the old Israel on the mountain. And Matthew writing to the Jewish converts to Christianity wishes to affirm that this Jesus who speaks from the mountain is God. Furthermore, just as God had always blessed the old Israel from the glory of the mountain, Matthew presents this very first teaching of Jesus from the mountain with the language of blessing.
Biblical scholars define this scenario in different ways: “the Ordination Address to the Twelve”, “the Compendium of Christ’s Doctrine”, “the Magna Charta of the Kingdom,”, “the Manifesto of the King.”
Matthew says that Jesus began to teach when he had sat down. This is typical of the Jewish Rabbi. They usually sit when they want to pronounce official teaching, if not a Rabbi is known to give instructions while standing or strolling about.
The concept that was used by Jesus throughout the teaching is “blessed”. It is derivative of the Greek word makarios. It was often employed when describing the action of the gods. But it assumed a Christian meaning as a godlike joy. In essence, the blessedness that Jesus promises here is that joy which has its secret within itself, that joy which is serene and untouchable, and self-contained, that joy which is completely independent of all the chances and the changes of life. In other words, Jesus pronounces the beatitude to signify that their greatness is that they are not wistful glimpses of some future beauty; they are not even golden promises of some distant glory; they are triumphant shouts of bliss for a permanent joy that nothing in the world can ever take away from those have made themselves available for God through their witness to the faith.
(Willam Barkley).
Jesus concludes the last two of the nine point beatitudes stressing on persecution. This is Matthew addressing the neophyte Church who was facing the persecution not only from the Jews but a more bloody persecution from the Roman emperors.
The only crime of the Christians was that they set Christ above Caesar who was considered a demigod and in whose honour a cult of worship was established. Thus, the supreme loyalty of the Christians to Christ led them to face tortures and died in their thousands. Here Matthew’s emphasis on the endurance of persecution by the Christians becomes a foretaste of John’s apocalyptic vision of the innumerable crowd who stand in the presence of the One seated on the throne and before the Lamb whom they bore witness to. THE FIRST READING FINALLY EMBRACES THE GOSPEL IN THE CONCEPT OF THE ENDURANCE OF PERSECUTION AND THE GLORY OF HEAVEN.
It is for this that Church reminds us today that all the saints whose feasts we celebrate today walked the hard and narrow path of the Beatitudes to arrive at their Heavenly bliss through their sequela Christi (Christ) whom Pope Benedict XVI describes as, “ the blessed par excellence.
LIFE MESSAGES
1. WE NEED TO ACCEPT THE CHALLENGE TO BECOME SAINTS. Jesus exhorts us: “Be made perfect as your Heavenly Father is Perfect” (Mt 5:48). St. Augustine asked: “If he and she can become saints, why can’t I?” (Si iste et ista, cur non ego?). On the feast of All Saints, the Church invites and challenges us to walk the walk of the saints and not just talk the talk: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in Heaven” (Mt 7:21).
2. WE CAN TAKE THE SHORT CUTS PRACTICED BY THREE THERESAS: i) St. Theresa of Avila: Recharge your spiritual batteries every day by prayer, namely, listening to God and talking to Him; ii) St. Therese of Lisieux: Convert every action into prayer by offering it to God for His glory and for the salvation of souls and by doing God’s will to the best of one’s ability; iii) St. Theresa of Calcutta (Mother Theresa): Do ordinary things with great love.
3. WE NEED TO PRAY TO THE SAINTS, both the canonized and the uncanonized, asking them to pray on our behalf that we may live our lives in faithfulness like theirs, and so receive the same reward. (Fr. Anthony Kadavil).
THE SAINT I KNOW
Today we celebrate the Saints, those who while in their mortal body identified with Christ and now contemplate him in the beatific vision. Jesus describes their quality in the Gospel today as the poor in the spirit, the meek and humble of heart, the merciful, those who were hungry and thirsty of righteousness, the pure in heart, the peacemakers and those who were persecuted and died innocently accused for standing for justice and truth for the sake of Christ. These are the saints we celebrate today both canonized and uncanonized, recognized and unrecognized. In communion with the universal Church we celebrate all today and seek for their intercession. But the truth is that I never knew any in person until I met one. I lived with her. I grew up under her. She nurtured my vocation and planted in me the seed of Christ. She watered the seed until it blossomed into a full tree today. On the 23rd of June 2005 when I wanted to decline from my journey to the sacred priesthood, she said “please go back! You never can tell where God is calling you and what He wants you to achieve. Please give it a trial”. Even while on holidays as a priest, she never stopped knocking on my door very early in the morning to come and conclude their morning prayers. I can’t remember the day she skipped morning masses, and she would always stop by at the parish house after mass to sweep and pick away the rubbish around. She always came back late from her daily business and trading, yet at 12 midnight she will wake up to say the midnight prayers which has remained part of my daily spiritual exercise, the gift she handed over to me without knowing it. She was always the first to wake up by 5.am to call everyone for morning devotion. She laboured and sacrificed herself to provide for her family until she was overweighed by sickness. She understood the value of prayer and never skipped saying her rosary. In fact, it was the last gift I placed around her neck as she was laid in the casket since I could not meet her before she gave up her last breath.
The first reading today makes me to see her among the innumerable crowd around the glorious throne. She is the saint I know. She is my mother. Think about the saint you know. Let us not be so much carried away by imaginary names unknown to us.Think about the people who have impacted positively on your life and who irrespective of human weaknesses tried their best to identify with Christ while on earth.Think of the uncanonized saints. These are the saints you know in person; their prayers and presence have not departed us and now they even love us the more. They are among the innumerable crowd.
HAPPY ALL SAINTS DAY.
