All Saints 2023
Today, we celebrate our brothers and sisters who fully share in God’s light and life, those we call the Saints, who live in heaven. For obvious reasons, we have no experience of heaven. What we know of happiness seems always fragile, and we are never totally surprised when we meet with trials and difficulties, seasons in purgatory or even, sometimes, periods in hell – although, again, we have experience neither of everlasting happiness nor of everlasting pain. There is in heaven a dimension of ‘for ever’ which we cannot grasp; neither should we try to grasp it: this will be given us at the proper moment. Does it mean that we cannot form any idea of heaven? Certainly, we should be cautious with images of heaven which may flatter imagination but in fact lead us astray. Today’s readings, however, provide us with helpful information.
Heaven, they teach us, is a place where justice reigns. There, you are perfectly known, in your identity, in all dimensions of your personality and life story. You are beyond judgement; your faults have been forgiven; but you are not beyond attention and loving care: according to a moving biblical image, tears are wiped from every eye by God Himself. Heaven is a place where you are considered, cared for, and loved according to your own circumstances and needs. Heaven is a place where justice is done. What was wrong is fixed. What was unjust is compensated, according to a logic we also find in the Beatitudes: those who suffered want are filled; those who helped them by depriving themselves are compensated abundantly. Heaven is the kingdom of merciful justice.
In heaven, the Saints are made happy by the vision of God Himself. At long last, God’s light has overcome darkness. It shines without meeting any obstacle. The saints see God as He is. In his light, they, creatures of dust and flesh, even they themselves are no longer obstacles. The same light fills those they see and the One whom they all see. The saints are Godlike: light as He is light; love as He is love; mercy as He is mercy. Light without darkness, day without night, such is the transfigured world of heaven.
Therefore, heaven resonates with joyful praise. Praise is our spontaneous answer to any manifestation of truth, goodness, and beauty. These fill us with joy and our hearts overflow in gratitude which expresses itself in our bodies. Our eyes shine, our hearts beat joyfully, we stand up in applause, we bow down in admiration, our lips open in a canticle of celebration. The Saints, who are facing God without any veil, are filled with effortless and overflowing praise. Theirs is an unceasing canticle of adoration, gratitude, and admiration: « Amen. Praise and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and strength to our God for ever and ever. Amen. »
The good news of the Beatitudes, which Jesus is so keen to teach us at the beginning of his ministry, teaches us that there is a way for us to dwell already in heaven while still on earth. For if we are not in heaven now by hope, we shall never be in heaven at all. God’s Mercy has been revealed; Light has shone out; ours is already a liturgy of praise. If one renounces pursuing earthly riches and consents to poverty according to the Gospel, one already possesses the Kingdom of Heaven. Those who keep their heart pure are given to see the light of God. Those who are merciful, those who pursue peace, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are already blessed with the loving and caring justice of our Father. Even in persecution for the name of Jesus, one can be given access to the kingdom to which only His cross opens the doors.
Heaven is the greatest gift made to us – indeed so great a gift that many find it too much and would content themselves with an earthly beatitude. It is the greatest gift and the greatest challenge. Today the example and the intercession of the Saints call us to take our lives in our hands and to direct them towards heaven. This world cannot suffice. Let us listen to the cries of the Saints beckoning us today to join them in their blessed life. God invites us through them. “Come, come to your Father! You, too, become a Saint.”