All Saints 2022
Ap 7, 2-4. 9-14
I Jo 3, 1-3
Mt 5, 1-12a
I am not sure that the image of a great multitude clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and praising God continually is immediately attractive for many of us. Is this really heaven? Is eternal life just a very long service performed by a gigantic throng? Is there no place for silence, intimacy, dialogue of souls in the light of God? Are the saints, all the saints, just a huge company with little or no place for each one’s personality?
We probably need to approach this representation from further afar. Let us think, for instance, to what happens in a stadium when huge numbers of supporters are watching their favourite team. Each of them ceases, as it were, to live in himself for a while; you are in the game; you kick the ball with the footballer; you are in his body and in his head; you jump with him; you win with the team, you fail with the team.
Similarly, when you attend a concert, you move into the music. You follow the voices, you watch the orchestra and the conductor, you forget about yourself, and you let yourself be led into a world of beauty and harmony.
These examples may give us some representation of the way the saints in heaven can be totally fascinated by God. They are out of themselves, as it were. Their gaze and indeed the attention of their whole being are focussed on God. At the same time, just like the spectators of a match or a concert, they experience a deep feeling of communion. They share in the same enthusiasm. They are made one by their common attention to God alone. Their differences seem to vanish. Each of them exists with each and all of the others. They belong to the same great reality: the communion of the saints who all partake in the one life of our God, who share in His holiness.
Today’s Gospel suggests another dimension of the mystery of heaven. The saints may well be one in God, you discern nevertheless among them the poor in spirit and the meek, the merciful and the righteous, the persecuted and the peacemakers. In the one light that is God, the Saints shine as the colours of a heavenly rainbow. Even, I should say, they keep the hallmarks of their earthly holiness. From afar they all look the same in their white robes. When you get near, you are surprised by how different they are, how unique each of them is with his or her own story and personality. In each of them, the full light of God is reflected in a unique way. You could even say that each of them is a heaven where God dwells. Each of them is a heart open to welcome in love all the other saints. They live in one another’s heart and all in the heart of the Holy God who is Love.
Hence their praise; for, like the angels and with them, they never cease to praise God Almighty: “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Hosts. Heaven and earth are full of your glory.” The Sanctus is the moment during the Mass when we join in their praise. The movement of the Mass draws us up into heaven where we meet with our God who comes down to us in His Son and in the Bread of Life. We follow Jesus, our High Priest, into the sanctuary in heaven. We join in His Holy Sacrifice. In this very offering, we receive the gift from Heaven: divine life, grace, the Holy Spirit of God Himself. We receive ourselves healed by God’s grace, renewed by God’s adoption, fully recreated in the image of the Only Begotten Son of God. We are made holy, we are sanctified, by the mysteries of the holy liturgy. We are thus called to make holiness the goal of our lives.
The grace of the Gospel has made it possible to answer the calling of God in Leviticus, “You shall be holy because I the Lord your God am holy” (19:1). Holiness is God’s gift to the poor. It is His life shared with them and His kingdom given to them. Comfort is offered to those who mourn. The earth is given to the meek. Those you hunger and thirst for righteousness find satisfaction. Mercy is bestowed on those who were merciful. The vision of God is granted to those who kept their heart pure. The peacemakers receive full adoption as children of the Father. Eternal reward and consolation meet those who were persecuted for the name of Jesus. Holiness is the gift bestowed on all who trust in the promise of the Gospel and who follow Jesus, out of love, through His Cross into life.