Solemnity of All Saints
Additional Information about the Solemnity of All Saints
Readings for the Solemnity of All Saints[i][ii]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
Readings and Commentary:[iii]
Reading 1: Revelations 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.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on Rv 7:2-4, 9-14
St. John’s vision of the heavenly kingdom unfolds in this passage with an image of those who have gone from this life to the next and now stand before the throne of God. “A seal is a mark of ownership and protection. Here the seal of God is related to the seals of the scroll, giving protection to the believing remnant of Israel, who will pass through the tribulation. This may refer to a grace of spiritual perseverance rather than a guarantee of physical survival. In the broader context of Revelation, there is a contrast between the seal of God stamped on the foreheads of the righteous and the mark of the beast inscribed on the brows of the wicked (Revelation 13:16). The former bears the divine name of God (Revelation 14:1; 22:4) while the latter bears the demonic name of the beast (CCC 1296). […] The entire scene parallels Ezekiel 9:1-7 where the messenger seals the foreheads of the righteous in Israel to protect them from the wrath of God poured out on Jerusalem. The seal was shaped like the Hebrew letter taw, which in ancient script looked like a cross (x or +).”[iv]
Hebrew numerology provides the number- one hundred and forty four thousand (from each of the tribes of Israel) representing a huge number (1,000 times 12 times 12), possibly a number of completeness, and follows that with uncounted Saints from the Gentiles beginning with the martyrs (those who have washed their robes in the Blood of the Lamb).” The blood of the Lamb, who has been offered in sacrifice for all, has exercised its 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 for ever and ever" (Pope John Paul II, "Homily", 1 November 1981).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 24:1bc-2, 3-4ab, 5-6
R. (see 6) Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
The LORD’s are the earth and its fullness;
the world and those who dwell in it.
For he founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD?
or who may stand in his holy place?
One whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean,
who desires not what is vain.
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
He shall receive a blessing from the LORD,
a reward from God his savior.
Such is the race that seeks him,
that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on Ps 24:1bc-2, 3-4ab, 5-6
Psalm 24 is a processional song. It recalls that God is the great creator (v.1bc) and he calls his people to be faithful. It asks the question; who can come into his presence? The psalmist answers; only those who are sinless (completely reconciled to God) may do so. Those who achieve that beatified state will receive the reward of eternal life from the savior.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reading II: 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.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on 1 Jn 3:1-3
“The greatest sign of God's love is the gift of his Son (John 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.”[v] “the world” is the biblical term consistently used in reference to the non-Christian populations of that era. In modern terminology it would refer to secular society.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on Mt 5:1-12a
This section of the Sermon on the Mount begins the first of five great discourses in St. Matthew’s Gospel. He begins using a formula common in the Wisdom literature of the Old Testament (Job 5:17; Proverbs 3:13; Sirach 25:8-9) with “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” This designation identifies those without material resources, completely dependent upon God. (This distinction is for the devout poor). The discourse continues blessing they who mourn, who are meek, who “hunger” for righteousness (-to adopt the Lord’s law of love in their hearts), the merciful, the clean of heart (-those who are reconciled to God), the peacemakers, the persecuted, and finally those who will be reviled because they profess faith in Christ.
It is noteworthy that the word “Blessed” [μακάριοι (makάrios) in Greek and Beati in Latin] is translated “Happy” in many Old Testament texts. The idea of happiness or peace as a blessing from God is an important understanding about the intent of this discourse.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Homily:
My guess is that around the third overtime in yesterday’s football game, several people actually thought about the topic we are given for today in Scripture, the resurrection of the dead.
Our understanding of the promised resurrection began with the early Hebrews as a quite different understanding from the one we have in Christ. When the author of the books of Maccabees recounted the events described in the first reading. The brother who announced his faith in the resurrection was thinking in Hebrew terms. Those who believe in the resurrection (and not all of them-even main-stream Hebrews did) believed that the “Just” would rise from their graves on the “Last day”. For them Eternal Life began when this world ended and God’s Kingdom began.
It was a rather natural progression. The earth would not last forever but God, who is eternal, would. Therefore even with earth passed away, those considered “Just” would be taken from their graves to God’s kingdom to live forever after with him.
It’s important that we understand this concept of the resurrection because Jesus came as “The Resurrection”; so we could have a new understanding of what God’s promise meant. He showed us this promise in the resurrection of his friend Lazarus and the daughter of the Centurion, and he brought them back from the dead. He did so, not only to bring joy to their loved ones, but to assure us that he has power over death. He raised them from the dead so we could have hope.
In his own physical death, through his passion, we have a heightened sense of the real gift given in the resurrection. The mental and physical pain he suffered during his last day in his human body was as if a lifetime of suffering was condensed into a few short hours of unimaginable agony. He lived a lifetime of pain in those last few hours. He did so only to show us that even through the pain of life in this world, there would be new hope as he rose from the dead on the third day.
He showed himself to his closest friends so a great misunderstanding about the resurrection could be clarified. He did not return in a body still racked with the pain of his passion but in a glorified body, free from pain or deformity. The wounds he showed to St. Thomas were to demonstrate the fact that he was the Christ who had undergone the passion as a sacrifice of atonement, not some gory demonstration. He did so providing hope for all of us so we could understand that our resurrection would not come with the pain and suffering of this life. We would not be trapped in a body that was riddled with disease or deformed by age or illness but rather in a glorified body like his own. A body created in God’s image and likeness; created to present itself at the throne in eternal and glorious adoration of our Heavenly Father.
The resurrection is a fundamental belief expressed as we finish our Creed – “We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.”
It is explained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
“By death the soul is separated from the body, but in the resurrection God will give incorruptible life to our body, transformed by reunion with our soul. Just as Christ is risen and lives for ever, so all of us will rise at the last day.” (CCC 1016)
The lesson of the Gospel today gives us one more glimpse of the resurrection as the Lord responds to the challenge of the Sadducees – those Jews who did not believe in the resurrection. They demonstrated the problem with temporal thinking when speaking of eternal life. Jesus gives us one more piece of the puzzle as he describes how Mosaic Law regarding marriage does not apply in the heavenly kingdom. The Sadducees were thinking of the Heavenly Kingdom in earthly terms.
Eternal life cannot be looked at in earthly terms. Pope Benedict addressed this very issue in Spe Salvi – his encyclical on Hope. He told us:
“To continue living for ever —endlessly—appears more like a curse than a gift. Death, admittedly, one would wish to postpone for as long as possible. But to live always, without end—this, all things considered, can only be monotonous and ultimately unbearable. “ (Spe Salvi, 10)
No, eternal life, as the Lord implies in his response, is a state of existence without time as a measure. We quote again from Spe Salvi –
“To imagine ourselves outside the temporality that imprisons us and in some way to sense that eternity is not an unending succession of days in the calendar, but something more like the supreme moment of satisfaction, in which totality embraces us and we embrace totality—this we can only attempt. It would be like plunging into the ocean of infinite love, a moment in which time—the before and after—no longer exists.” (Spe Salvi, 12)
The Lesson today is one that requires us to work diligently to put on the mind of Christ. He points to the resurrection for each of us the great gift he offers on his Father’s behalf. One that requires us, like those poor Sadducees who could only see him as a threat, to step outside of our one language defined reality and try to see the great mystery he offeres.
As we approach the altar once more today to receive the glorified body of Christ in the Eucharist, let us all come to new hope in the resurrection he promised and new life with him who exists eternally.
Pax
Additional Information about the Solemnity of All Saints
Readings for the Solemnity of All Saints[i][ii]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
Readings and Commentary:[iii]
Reading 1: Revelations 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.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on Rv 7:2-4, 9-14
St. John’s vision of the heavenly kingdom unfolds in this passage with an image of those who have gone from this life to the next and now stand before the throne of God. “A seal is a mark of ownership and protection. Here the seal of God is related to the seals of the scroll, giving protection to the believing remnant of Israel, who will pass through the tribulation. This may refer to a grace of spiritual perseverance rather than a guarantee of physical survival. In the broader context of Revelation, there is a contrast between the seal of God stamped on the foreheads of the righteous and the mark of the beast inscribed on the brows of the wicked (Revelation 13:16). The former bears the divine name of God (Revelation 14:1; 22:4) while the latter bears the demonic name of the beast (CCC 1296). […] The entire scene parallels Ezekiel 9:1-7 where the messenger seals the foreheads of the righteous in Israel to protect them from the wrath of God poured out on Jerusalem. The seal was shaped like the Hebrew letter taw, which in ancient script looked like a cross (x or +).”[iv]
Hebrew numerology provides the number- one hundred and forty four thousand (from each of the tribes of Israel) representing a huge number (1,000 times 12 times 12), possibly a number of completeness, and follows that with uncounted Saints from the Gentiles beginning with the martyrs (those who have washed their robes in the Blood of the Lamb).” The blood of the Lamb, who has been offered in sacrifice for all, has exercised its 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 for ever and ever" (Pope John Paul II, "Homily", 1 November 1981).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 24:1bc-2, 3-4ab, 5-6
R. (see 6) Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
The LORD’s are the earth and its fullness;
the world and those who dwell in it.
For he founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD?
or who may stand in his holy place?
One whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean,
who desires not what is vain.
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
He shall receive a blessing from the LORD,
a reward from God his savior.
Such is the race that seeks him,
that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on Ps 24:1bc-2, 3-4ab, 5-6
Psalm 24 is a processional song. It recalls that God is the great creator (v.1bc) and he calls his people to be faithful. It asks the question; who can come into his presence? The psalmist answers; only those who are sinless (completely reconciled to God) may do so. Those who achieve that beatified state will receive the reward of eternal life from the savior.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reading II: 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.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on 1 Jn 3:1-3
“The greatest sign of God's love is the gift of his Son (John 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.”[v] “the world” is the biblical term consistently used in reference to the non-Christian populations of that era. In modern terminology it would refer to secular society.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on Mt 5:1-12a
This section of the Sermon on the Mount begins the first of five great discourses in St. Matthew’s Gospel. He begins using a formula common in the Wisdom literature of the Old Testament (Job 5:17; Proverbs 3:13; Sirach 25:8-9) with “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” This designation identifies those without material resources, completely dependent upon God. (This distinction is for the devout poor). The discourse continues blessing they who mourn, who are meek, who “hunger” for righteousness (-to adopt the Lord’s law of love in their hearts), the merciful, the clean of heart (-those who are reconciled to God), the peacemakers, the persecuted, and finally those who will be reviled because they profess faith in Christ.
It is noteworthy that the word “Blessed” [μακάριοι (makάrios) in Greek and Beati in Latin] is translated “Happy” in many Old Testament texts. The idea of happiness or peace as a blessing from God is an important understanding about the intent of this discourse.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Homily:
My guess is that around the third overtime in yesterday’s football game, several people actually thought about the topic we are given for today in Scripture, the resurrection of the dead.
Our understanding of the promised resurrection began with the early Hebrews as a quite different understanding from the one we have in Christ. When the author of the books of Maccabees recounted the events described in the first reading. The brother who announced his faith in the resurrection was thinking in Hebrew terms. Those who believe in the resurrection (and not all of them-even main-stream Hebrews did) believed that the “Just” would rise from their graves on the “Last day”. For them Eternal Life began when this world ended and God’s Kingdom began.
It was a rather natural progression. The earth would not last forever but God, who is eternal, would. Therefore even with earth passed away, those considered “Just” would be taken from their graves to God’s kingdom to live forever after with him.
It’s important that we understand this concept of the resurrection because Jesus came as “The Resurrection”; so we could have a new understanding of what God’s promise meant. He showed us this promise in the resurrection of his friend Lazarus and the daughter of the Centurion, and he brought them back from the dead. He did so, not only to bring joy to their loved ones, but to assure us that he has power over death. He raised them from the dead so we could have hope.
In his own physical death, through his passion, we have a heightened sense of the real gift given in the resurrection. The mental and physical pain he suffered during his last day in his human body was as if a lifetime of suffering was condensed into a few short hours of unimaginable agony. He lived a lifetime of pain in those last few hours. He did so only to show us that even through the pain of life in this world, there would be new hope as he rose from the dead on the third day.
He showed himself to his closest friends so a great misunderstanding about the resurrection could be clarified. He did not return in a body still racked with the pain of his passion but in a glorified body, free from pain or deformity. The wounds he showed to St. Thomas were to demonstrate the fact that he was the Christ who had undergone the passion as a sacrifice of atonement, not some gory demonstration. He did so providing hope for all of us so we could understand that our resurrection would not come with the pain and suffering of this life. We would not be trapped in a body that was riddled with disease or deformed by age or illness but rather in a glorified body like his own. A body created in God’s image and likeness; created to present itself at the throne in eternal and glorious adoration of our Heavenly Father.
The resurrection is a fundamental belief expressed as we finish our Creed – “We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.”
It is explained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
“By death the soul is separated from the body, but in the resurrection God will give incorruptible life to our body, transformed by reunion with our soul. Just as Christ is risen and lives for ever, so all of us will rise at the last day.” (CCC 1016)
The lesson of the Gospel today gives us one more glimpse of the resurrection as the Lord responds to the challenge of the Sadducees – those Jews who did not believe in the resurrection. They demonstrated the problem with temporal thinking when speaking of eternal life. Jesus gives us one more piece of the puzzle as he describes how Mosaic Law regarding marriage does not apply in the heavenly kingdom. The Sadducees were thinking of the Heavenly Kingdom in earthly terms.
Eternal life cannot be looked at in earthly terms. Pope Benedict addressed this very issue in Spe Salvi – his encyclical on Hope. He told us:
“To continue living for ever —endlessly—appears more like a curse than a gift. Death, admittedly, one would wish to postpone for as long as possible. But to live always, without end—this, all things considered, can only be monotonous and ultimately unbearable. “ (Spe Salvi, 10)
No, eternal life, as the Lord implies in his response, is a state of existence without time as a measure. We quote again from Spe Salvi –
“To imagine ourselves outside the temporality that imprisons us and in some way to sense that eternity is not an unending succession of days in the calendar, but something more like the supreme moment of satisfaction, in which totality embraces us and we embrace totality—this we can only attempt. It would be like plunging into the ocean of infinite love, a moment in which time—the before and after—no longer exists.” (Spe Salvi, 12)
The Lesson today is one that requires us to work diligently to put on the mind of Christ. He points to the resurrection for each of us the great gift he offers on his Father’s behalf. One that requires us, like those poor Sadducees who could only see him as a threat, to step outside of our one language defined reality and try to see the great mystery he offeres.
As we approach the altar once more today to receive the glorified body of Christ in the Eucharist, let us all come to new hope in the resurrection he promised and new life with him who exists eternally.
Pax
[i] ALTRE
[ii] The picture is “Madonna and Child with Saints” by Andrea Del Castagno, c. 1445
[iii] The readings are taken from the New American Bible with the exception of the Psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for English in Liturgy (ICEL). This re-publication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.
[iv] Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, © 2010, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, CA. pp. 501
[v] See NAB footnote on 1 Jn 3:1-3
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