The Solemnity of All Saints

Solemnity of All Saints

Information about the Solemnity of All Saints
Readings for Solemnity of All Saints



Reading 1 Rev 7:2-4, 9-14

Responsorial Psalm Ps 24:1bc-2, 3-4ab, 5-6
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.

Reading II 1 Jn 3:1-3

Gospel Mt 5:1-12a

Reflection:

The annual ritual that attempts to blemish the celebration today has passed. The children and teens are now recovering from their sugar highs and, in the northern states, near hypothermia. The costumes both gruesome and cute are put away for another year and we can now focus on a truly important celebration of the universal Church- the Solemnity of All Saints. Each year at the Vatican following the Angelus, the Pope makes a short address to mark the occasion. Three years ago, Pope John Paul the Great said the following of this day:

“Today we celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints. It invites us to turn our gaze to the immense multitude of those who have already reached the blessed Homeland, pointing us to the road which leads to that destination.

The Saints and Blesseds of Paradise remind us, as pilgrims on Earth, that prayer, above all, is our sustenance for each day so that we never lose sight of our eternal destiny.” (John Paul II, Angelus, Solemnity of All Saints, Saturday, 1 November 2003)

Listening to the scripture today we hear first from St. John who writes from his tiny cell on the island of Patmos. He envisions all of those who have turned faithfully to the Lord and have washed themselves clean in the Blood of the Lamb. An obvious metaphor for Jesus, especially because the robes of those so washed were white, free of blemish.

Those who have gone before us have indeed pointed us on our way. I am reminded of parents who constantly point their children in the direction their experience tells them is best and how often that very good advice is shunned. We cannot afford to ignore the directions we are given, first by Jesus who tells us “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.”

Today as we recall all of those who have gone before us in faith we ask ourselves, with all of these examples, what is the best way for me to follow? The answer to that question can only be found in the depths of prayer and the illumination of the path through the lives of all those varied and winding journeys taken by the Saints we remember today. From the Holy Innocents who died never having tasted life to the colored path taken by the likes of St. Augustine, the path we follow must be the one were Christ leads us.

The beatitudes make it clear – there are may paths but what is common is our need to listen to the word of God and follow where he leads, never giving up never becoming disheartened. At the end of our journey through this life to the next, what the Lord will look with his intensely loving stare is what we have done for his greater glory with what he gave us. Let us pray we are not found lacking.

Pax