A note.
This was last Sunday’s Gospel reading.
I’m still a week behind but I should have this Sunday’s shortly.
This year the Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time was superseded by the Solemnity of All Saints because November 1st fell on a Sunday. The Gospel reading for All Saints Day are the Beatitudes because it is the saints that live out the Beatitudes to the fullest.
The Beatitudes are blessings. Each Beatitude describes a state such as being “poor in spirit.” Jesus goes on to say what blessing you will acquire because of being in that state. In the case of being “poor in spirit,’ the blessing given to you is the kingdom of God. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.”
It is observed that Jesus perfectly embodies the
Beatitudes. But it can also be observed
that Jesus shining through the saints enlightens their blessed state, the state
of the beatific. When we humble sinners
are made saints in heaven—perhaps having the need to be purged prior—and are allowed
to gaze upon the Beatific vision, then we will perfectly exhibit the Beatitudes
ourselves.
Today’s Gospel:
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."
~Mt: 5:1-12
For the exegetical homily, I will return to Archbishop Edward Wiesenberger
of Detroit.
Archbishop Wiesenberger:
Brothers and sisters
in Christ, it happens infrequently, but when All Saints Day, a Holy Day of
Obligation, falls on a Sunday, it becomes the celebration for the Sunday. And
so instead of this weekend's Mass being the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time, the
Universal Church will be celebrating All Saints Day, with the Gospel text being
that one we know so well, the Beatitudes. And so, let's look at both the
Gospel, and also the reason for celebrating "All Saints."
First, the Gospel.
It's from Matthew, who, as I've often said, was writing primarily for Jewish converts
to Christianity. And so, his gospel is filled with Old Testament images
revealing Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah, the fulfillment of all of the
prophecies and hopes. Recall, too, that one of the most critical, pivotal
moments in Jewish history was when Moses
went up the mountain to commune with God, and then came down from the mountain
and brought back with him the Law. The Law. A great gift from God. Especially
seen in that gift of the Ten Commandments. A gift that was indeed good. God
doesn't give bad things. It revealed only to the Jewish people, God's chosen ones,
what He desired from them at that moment in time. It revealed to them what
would please God. Move forward in time to Jesus, then going up the mountain,
communing with His Heavenly Father, and then coming down the mountain with the
Beatitudes described as the "new law." This one, the law of love.
Jesus is revealed by Matthew as the new and greater Moses. The one who, in the
Beatitudes, reveals what truly and completely fulfills God's will. What pleases God for all time. And what
pleases our God is actually the reversal, the turning upside down of the
secular world's sinful values. What pleases God and creates saints are those
who work for peace, replacing the "might-makes-right" or
glorification of violence we see in our world today. What pleases God is the
humble and the poor, not so much the arrogant, or those who believe in the
security of their wealth or power. What pleases God is the merciful, not those
creative enough to exact vengeance. What
pleases God is the meek, those hungering for righteousness, the pure of heart,
and those persecuted for their commitment to Him. Yes, these are both the signs
of saints, as well as the attributes that cooperate with God's grace to create
saints.
That's the
Beatitudes, our Gospel for the day. But turning our thoughts to "why All
Saints," I would note I'm influenced by the writing of Fr. Roy Donner, a
very fine homilist, author, and priest of the Sacramento diocese. He notes that Easter is clearly the greatest feast
of the Church's liturgical year. We know that it's the day of the Lord's
resurrection, His victory over sin and death. He then notes that the
celebration of All Saints could be called a little Easter because it's the day
we anticipate our own resurrection and celebrate our own victory over sin and death.
And we hope to arrive at that great day having spent our lives as the great
saints did; making them holy as our God is holy. It began for each of them as it has for
us. Baptism washing our robes and making
them white sin the blood of the lamb. Baptism washes away Original Sin, along
with any personal sins. It opens the door to salvation. But it's not an act of
magic. Rather, it's the essential foundational step upon which we then spend
our lives building a relationship with God. Building upon baptism around the
age of reason, we begin being fed with the Body and Blood of Christ from the
Table of the Lord, the altar of Sacrifice. The fathers of the Second Vatican
Council referred to the Eucharist as the "Source and Summit" of our
Christian life. It's the Eucharist that strengthens us and, with our
cooperation, further fashions us into the saint God created each of us to be.
The final sacrament that initiates us into full and complete relationship with
the Father is the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament of
Confirmation. Those seven gifts: wisdom,
understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and reverential fear of
God. Those seven gifts are attributes only Jesus enjoys in their fullness. But
He shares them with us uniquely in Confirmation, even if in a host of lesser,
but still miraculously important ways by grace.
Brothers and sisters,
with this background, these three Sacraments of Initiation build that very relationship
with God. They help to bring to completion the works of salvation begun on that
first Easter in Jesus himself. They help us to be poor in spirit. They help us
to be empathetic toward those who grieve. They empower us to be meek and
unassuming in our relationships, to be pure in our motives, to be peacemakers
through reconciliation, and to be courageous in defending our Lord's teachings
and values in the face of persecution.
We become saints as we are transformed into the state of blessedness, into the Beatitudes.
For the pastoral sermon, we go not to a priest’s homily but to a video
from Catholic Saints and Feasts.
Catholic Saints & Feasts:
November 1st, All
Saints. Heaven is populated with holy
people known to God alone. Martyrs were
so revered in the early church that their places and dates of death were
sanctified by the candles, prayers, and votive offerings of the faithful,
grateful for their witness. So many were
the martyrs, though, that by the early 4th century, it became impossible to
solemnize each individually on the church's crowded calendar. There thus arose
over centuries and in different ways in different regions the custom of
commemorating the memory of all the holy ones on one specific day of the year.
By the early 8th century, the feast of all saints was celebrated in Rome on
November 1st. The feast was extended to the entire church in the next century.
The church defines a
saint as a soul enjoying the beatific vision in heaven. So besides the famous
saints found on the universal calendar and the lesser known saints not on that
calendar, there are still many more souls in heaven not officially recognized
as saints at all. These are the saints we celebrate in a particular way today. The Solemnity of all Saints commemorates all
those holy men, women, children, martyrs, confessors, and unknown others who
lived lives of such holiness that upon death, they either entered directly into
God's presence in heaven or duly purified their soul of every imperfection in
purgatory before then advancing into his presence. All star saints such as St. Augustine and St.
Francis of Assisi stand shoulder to shoulder in heaven with forgotten grandmas,
quiet uncles and unknown martyrs. These
unrecognized but holy souls did not convert entire tribes, found religious
communities, or have their bones crushed by the jaws of lions in the arena.
Maybe they just kept their mouth shut when they had just the right words to
humiliate a family member.
It is difficult to be a saint! But with God’s grace, may we all reach that blessed state.
Sunday Meditation: “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven."
Let’s go with what all accounts are from a saintly man, Louis Armstrong,
playing and singing, “When The Saints Go Marching In.”
O, when the saints go
marching in,
O, when the saints go
marching in.
Lord, I want to be in
that number
when the saints go
marching in.
Man, you have to have God’s grace shining through you to play like that. May we all be in that number!
