If you wish to read the texts click here: Rev 7:2-4,9-14; 1 Jn 3:1-3; Mt 5:1-12a
“I want to be in that number when the Saints go marching in”.
These words from the popular spiritual song “When the Saints Go Marching In”
can be regarded as one of the two important reasons why we celebrate the feast
of All Saints.
In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III consecrated a new chapel
in the Basilica of St. Peter to all saints on November 1, and he fixed the
anniversary of this dedication as the date of the feast. In the ninth century,
Pope Gregory IV extended the celebration of All Saints for the entire Church
and since then, the Church celebrates the feast of all Saints on this date.
While the celebration of this solemnity may be seen on the one
hand as a remembrance or memorial of the numerous courageous men and women who
lived lives of selfless love, it may also be seen as an event which makes each
of us aware that we, too, as those who have gone before, are capable of living
such lives. It is a celebration of possibilities, potential and promise. They
could, we also can.
This possibility and potential is brought out vividly in the first
reading from the Book of Revelation. While on the one hand there are the chosen
one hundred and forty four thousand made up of twelve thousand each from the
twelve tribes of Israel, there is also the great multitude from every nation
and tribe and language. This great multitude is a demonstration that the
possibility of being included is a very real one and that everyone who desires
it can receive it. While it is true that the choice is made by God, we as humans
can desire it by being willing to be washed in the blood of the lamb. This
means the willingness to undergo persecution, trials and tribulations and
resisting the pressure to conform to values of the “world” which include
selfishness and self centeredness.
This willingness not to conform is precisely the reason why, in
the Gospel text of today, Jesus can declare as “blessed”, those who in the eyes
of the world might seem as those who are cursed. This declaration is a
confident assertion of the reality that is now and here. The beatitudes are not
a “wish list” nor a projection of the future state of what is to come. They are
not conditions for discipleship or preliminary requirements for an initiate.
Rather, they describe those who belong to the community of the Lord. They
describe the Saints.
The nine pronouncements, or declarations, are thus not statements
about general human virtues. Rather, they pronounce blessing on authentic
disciples in the Christian community. All the beatitudes apply to one group of people.
They do not describe nine different kinds of good people who get to go to
heaven, but are nine declarations about the blessedness, contrary to all
appearances, of the eschatological community living in anticipation of God’s
reign.
“Poor in spirit” definitely includes being economically poor, but
goes further than literal poverty. It refers also to an absence of arrogance
and the presence of dependence. It refers to an absence of ego and a presence
of awareness that one’s true identity is found only in God.
The “mourning” of disciples is not because of the loss of
something personal or because of the death of a loved one. It is a mourning
that is outward in that the mourning is because things are the way they are.
The mourning is because God’s will is not being done and represents also a
desire to do it. It is mourning because of what is not and also because of what
can be.
Meekness in the third beatitude represents not a passive
attitude of endurance or as is sometimes understood: gullibility. Rather it is
an active disposition that will refuse to use violent means. This refusal does
not represent inability, weakness or impotence. It represents instead a
deliberate choice of one’s way of proceeding.
This is also what is meant by the desire or hunger for
righteousness or justice. It is the courage to do God’s will here and now with
the confidence and optimism that the kingdom is indeed now and here.
The disciples are pure in heart or have a single minded devotion
to God and will not be swayed by things that are temporary and passing. They
will not be divided or serve two masters. They will serve the Lord and the Lord
alone.
This single minded service of the Lord will also enable them to
work for peace and reconciliation. They will bring together people of different
experiences, races, religions, and languages not through any kind of coercion
or force, but through the example of consecrated and selfless lives. All this
they will do with a deep sense of joy, because they know that this is really
the only way to live fully and completely the life that God in his graciousness
has bestowed.
It is the same God who calls them his children and to whom he is
Father. The disciples know that this is indeed what they are because they live
lives that are in keeping with their call.
The elder who invited John to identify those robed in white
continues to invite us not only to identify them today, but also to have the
confidence that, if we dare to live as Jesus has lived and shown us and as the
Saints who have gone before us have lived, then we too can be counted in that
number.