Solemnity of all SAINTS (November 1)
First: Rv 7:2-4. 9-14; Second: 1 Jn 3:1-3 Gospel: Mt 5:1-12a
THEME of the READINGS
The saints are a reflection of the Son of God, who live on earth according to the beatitudes practiced by Jesus Christ even before he taught them: poverty, gentleness, pureness of heart, love for peace, persecution, martyrdom... It is impossible to determine the number of saints (144,000 is a symbolic number to indicate a huge immensity), and they are from all races and nations (First Reading). As they are a reflection of the Son on earth, the fullness of filial happiness in the vision of God is awaiting them in Heaven (Second Reading).
DOCTrinal MESSAGE
Jesus, master of the beatitudes. In the sermon on the mount, Jesus expressed what he had lived and what he would live until his death. He proclaims blessed those that are poor, and he will have nowhere to rest his head (Lk 9:58). "Blessed are the gentle," and he defined himself as gentle and humble in heart (Mt 11:29). "Blessed are those that cry," and he cried before Jerusalem, which kills the prophets and does not welcome those that are sent to her (Lk 19:41). "Blessed are the pure in heart," and sin never dwelled in his heart, to the point that he asked, "Can any of you convict me of sin?" (Jn 8:46). "Blessed are the peacemakers," and Jesus is the prince of peace who enters Jerusalem like a peaceful prince riding on a donkey (Mt 21:1-5) and says to Peter, "Put your sword back, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword" (Mt 26:52). "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for uprightness," and he has no other nourishment than the will of the Father (Jn 4:34), and his thirst is none other than the redemption of the world (Jn 19:28). "Blessed are those who are persecuted in the cause of justice," and he was treated like a criminal and was subjected to torture on the cross (cf Lk 23:1-25).
The saints, disciples of Jesus Christ. Like Christ and with him, the saints are the champions of the beatitudes. Among them, there are some that distinguish themselves from the rest in living particular beatitudes. Thus the champion of the beatitude of poverty is found in Saint Francis of Assisi; that of the weeping which will be consoled in Saint Monica, Saint Augustine's mother; that of gentleness in Saint Francis of Sales, who was naturally prone to anger and violence; that of the pure in heart, in Saint Louis Gonzaga; that of the peacemaker, in Saint Bernardino of Siena, who was able to reconcile the Guelphs and Ghibellines; the champion of those who hunger and thirst for uprightness in Saint Thomas More, who preferred to die as a criminal out of fidelity and justice towards God; the champions of the persecuted, in all the martyrs who shed their blood before denying their Faith. After Christ, in the living of such beatitudes, come such saints and thousands and thousands more, who have lived some of the beatitudes with the fullness of their spirit. Thus they have been considered worthy of being children of God. On earth they saw some of the divine splendor, and after death they entered the eternal vision of the mystery of God.
The number of saints is impossible to determine. The number 144 is a multiple of 12, which in turn is four times three, that is, the sum of what is immeasurable, which reaches the extremes of the four cardinal points. These saints are from all races, countries and cultures, they are of all ages, gender, state and trade. The latest popes, especially John Paul II, have emphasized this universality by beatifying and canonizing numerous men and women of faith across the five continents. It is an immeasurable number, because in truth, all those who live and die in a state of grace and friendship with God are saints.
PASTORal SUGGESTIONS
It would be good for Christians to know and admire the lives of saints, especially those who are honored by the universal Church, and those that are from our own country or who have great resonance in a number of countries or in an entire continent. In history, they are the living reflection of holiness and of the virtues of Jesus Christ. With their simple and heroic way of practicing the virtues, they stimulate us to seek goodness and holiness, and they lead us to Jesus Christ and to the Father. In order for the faithful to know and admire the saints, either in the feasts of patron saints or in their memory, it may be worthwhile to briefly recall some of the aspects of their lives, some of the virtues in which they distinguished themselves, some of their teachings that will continue to enlighten and nourish the reflection of faithful Christians. Take advantage of occasions like catechesis to encourage adolescents and young people, especially, to read about the lives of saints by making pamphlets and books available.
God wants us all to be saints, according to our vocation and to our living conditions. no one must feel excluded, as unworthy as he may consider himself. God is not asking us for anything extraordinary in order for this to happen, for if that were the case, only some people would be capable of achieving holiness. He only asks us to live the spirit of the beatitudes in the simplicity of everyday life, making them present in everything that we do each day. He asks us to carry out our work with honor and joy. He asks us to live our family life with happiness, as parents, spouses, children, brothers, grandchildren ... He asks us to always set a good example for others, wherever we are. He asks us to help the neediest, even when we are poor and in need ourselves. He asks us to raise our hearts to God during the day to pray, bless, thank and worship him.
Source: http://www.clerus.org/clerus/dati/2004-05/21-13/CICLOA.html
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Solemnity of ALL SAINTS 1st November 2000
First: Rev 7:2-4.9-14; Second: 1 Jn 3:1-3; Gospel: Mt 5:1-12a
THEME of the READINGS
Where is Christian identity? The liturgy of this feast gives us a good answer to this question. He who lives out the spirit of the beatitudes pronounced by Jesus in the great sermon on the mount, is truly a Christian (Gospel). He who carries the seal of God on his forehead and wears the white robe washed in the blood of the Lamb (first reading) is really a Christian. Or better yet, according to the true Christian, "we are already God’s children, but what we shall be in the future has not yet been revealed" (second reading).
DOCTrinal MESSAGE
Present and future. In the second reading and in the Gospel, there is a great tension between the present and the future, proper to Christian being and doing. There is tension between the now in which we are already his children and the not knowing yet what we shall be after our death; between the present reality of the grace which acts salvifically in the human person, and the mystery the future has in store for us in the presence of God. There is tension between the first and the eighth beatitude, referring to the present (How blessed are the poor in spirit: the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs; Blessed are those who are persecuted in the cause of uprightness: the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs), and the other beatitudes, whose motivation always lays in the future: the gentle shall have the earth for their inheritance, those who mourn shall be comforted, those who hunger and thirst for uprightness shall have their fill, the merciful shall have mercy shown them, the pure in heart shall see God, the peacemakers shall be recognized as children of God. It is the tension of all Christian existence and of the very life of the Church. The Christian is already saved through baptism, already a child of God, with a foot already in heaven. However, the historical condition of the human person on the one hand and his free will on the other, leave the door open to an unknown and uncertain future. Who can infallibly guarantee that a person is going to make good use of his freedom until the final moment of his existence? This is why the definitive nature of salvation and of communion with God cannot but extend into the future, although certainly with hope placed in the mercy of the Father.
The seal of God on our forehead. A seal on an object or an animal indicates ownership. The seal of God on a person’s forehead distinguishes those who have accepted belonging to God. This seal bears the letter tau, the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet which, like omega in Greek, refer us to fullness and fulfillment. It is for this reason that the number of 144,000 human beings sealed by God indicates the universal number of those who have been saved, taken from all villages and at all strata. Not only do they belong to God, but they also wear a white robe washed in the blood of the Lamb. In other words, they have been saved for they have implemented in their existence the redeeming work of Christ. On the other hand, tau has the shape of a Greek cross. Here it seems impossible not to make reference to the Cross of Jesus Christ in whose Blood the sinful the man has washed his sins and in whose beams Christ has nailed the condemnation that hung over each one of us. This divine seal is something we receive at the time of baptism, in which God makes us children of his love. This is the seal of those who are in the Kingdom of Heaven and wish to live in it with dignity, incarnating within themselves the beatitudes, throughout the long journey of life. Baptismal holiness is not an already perfectly formed tree, but a seed that must grow and become a tree. To the extent that the Kingdom of God and the beatitudes develop within us, we become holy and the heirs of Heaven. Holiness, thank God, has nothing magical or automatic about it.
PASTORal SUGGESTIONS
The beatitudes reversed. Blessed are the rich (the rich in material goods, the rich in science and technology, the rich in fame and power), because the kingdom of earth is theirs. Blessed are the angry, the short-tempered, those who impose things on others, the overbearing - because they shall strip the earth of the weak and the powerless, of the gentle of heart, of the useless and incapable. Blessed are those who laugh and those for whom life and everyone smiles, because they think that they already have paradise on earth and will not need to be comforted. Blessed are those who do not hunger or thirst for uprightness, because they are jaded by injustice, meanness and wickedness. Blessed are those who have no mercy, the hard of heart, because they do not need mercy, because they do not accept the weakness of tenderness and piety. Blessed are those who have been contaminated by tainted loves, by illicit loves, by blatantly selfish loves, because they will be blind to God’s things, to anything that is altruistic, spiritual and divine. Blessed are those who work for war, the violent, the manufacturers of weapons and missiles, because they shall be called the children of Mars, the god of war, heroes of the machine gun working to build a new future whose fundamental law will be the law of the jungle. Blessed are those who escape the justice of human beings by using their influence or through bribes, because the kingdom of this world is theirs and they live in this world like kings. Reversing the beatitudes can help us to enhance a lot more all of the revolutionary energy, all of the imposing power of the real beatitudes. It is the same difference that exists between a holy man and a criminal.
Heaven. There are those who wish to turn the earth into heaven and those who wish to turn heaven into earth. Both positions are very far from Christian modesty before the infinite mystery that escapes us. We must have a burning desire to go to heaven, but we must respect its mysterious nature with a simple heart and an enlightened intelligence. We must recognize that those who wanted to build heaven on earth were so blatantly wrong that they got hell instead. But we must also admit that those who have raised the earth to heaven, have radically lost the essence of the mystery. Let us not strive to make up for our ignorance about heaven by filling it with things of the earth. Let us accept the limits of our knowledge. Because we know that heaven consists in eternal communion of the saved with the triune God and with all the brothers who accepted God’s salvation in their lives. We known that this communion will provide the greatest degree of happiness that can be enjoyed, to each one in his individual dimension and as a member of the heavenly Church. We know that we shall enjoy this divine happiness with our entire being, body and soul. Let us accept this learned ignorance with faith and love.
Source: http://www.clerus.org/clerus/dati/2004-05/21-13/CICLOB.html
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ALL SAINTS’ Day (1st November)
First: Rev 7:2-4,9-14; Second: 1 Jn 3:1-3; Gospel: Mt 5:1-12a
THEME of the READINGS
What else could the liturgy of this feast be centered on if not holiness? The Gospel admirably summarizes the ways of Christian holiness by means of the Beatitudes. In the first reading, taken from Revelation, our attention is focused on the infinite number of those who have been called to be holy, and to share in the gift of holiness here and throughout eternity. Finally, in the first letter of Saint John, the Christian assembly is introduced to the mysterious relationship existing between the love that God has for us, which is the love of a Father, and the holiness that he grants us as children through his Son.
DOCTrinal MESSAGE
Beatitudes… and holiness. The eight types of people who are called blessed are the saints. Instead of saying, "How blessed are the poor in spirit, the gentle, those who mourn, those who hunger and thirst for uprightness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, those who are persecuted in the cause of uprightness," it would have been sufficient to say, "How blessed are the saints." Each category of persons mentioned here is, so to speak, the expression of, and a way to holiness. The poor in spirit are saints, for God is their true richness. The gentle are holy, for gentleness or humility is the attitude proper to men before their Creator and Lord. Holy are also those who mourn, for they cry tears of repentance for their sins and for those of men, their brothers. Who more than the saints hunger and thirst for uprightness, that is, for God to justify and save all humankind? The saints are the most merciful in the world, for they exercise mercy towards the most wretched people on earth, namely sinners. The pure in heart are saints, for their heart and eyes have been washed with the blood of the Lamb, in order for them to see with divine clarity the things of heaven and of earth. The saints are those who work more than anyone for peace, that is, they work to establish in the human society the conditions that will foster concord among people, but above all foster their human and spiritual development. Those who are persecuted in the cause of uprightness, what other name could they be called if not saints, martyrs whose life has been sanctified in the loneliness of prison or in the darkness of a gas chamber? Through the Gospel God has provided to men many paths from which to reach him, but the final destination is the same: holiness. One holiness alone, or better yet, ONE SAINT ALONE, JESUS CHRIST, and many ways of pronouncing and confessing his name with one’s life. "How blessed are the saints, because the kingdom of Heaven is theirs, the spiritual fruitfulness on earth is theirs." We can say about the saint that he is the one who lives on earth but with his eyes set on Heaven, and when he reaches Heaven he will continue to be very present on earth.
Love… and holiness. Holiness is the fruit of an encounter of love between God and the creature. "God is love," as we read in the second reading. As God is the beginning of all creation, his love cannot but be fruitful, because it is the love of the Father; and, since God is Father, the greatest wonder that could have happened to man was to become a child of God. Man’s greatness will be his ability to live as such, following in the footsteps of the incarnated Son. The love of God grants man the ability and spiritual power to be holy. Man’s love for God puts into practice the ability received and the power to achieve holiness. Jesus Christ is the unique case because only he is the Son of God in the strict sense; the others are children through the Son, for the Father sees in man his Son’s reflection. He is the standard bearer because holy men do nothing but look to Christ, who is the Way, the Truth and Life, and follow in his footsteps. When Jesus Christ came into this world, we gave him our eyes so that with them he could see the Father, though in an opaque and imperfect way. When we cross the threshold into eternity, Jesus Christ will give us his eyes, so that we no longer see the Father in shadows, but "as he really is." (Second reading.) In the love-holiness relationship, mention must be made of the infinite number of those who have been called, which the first reading taken from Revelation refers to. The number called is not twelve, as the tribes of Israel, but twelve by twelve, thus adding the tribes of Israel to the Twelve apostles of Jesus Christ: the Jews and the Christians. However, not just 144, but 144 multiplied by one thousand, that is, all humankind. Yes, God wants humankind in its entirety to be sanctified by love and grace, and thus have access to the eternal destiny of happiness in Heaven. 144,000 is not a limiting number, but the symbol of the human universe.
PASTORal SUGGESTIONS
The doxology of a holy life. "Praise, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power and might, be to our Lord forever and ever," is the doxology that echoes unceasingly on the lips of the saints in heaven. This is a doxology which we must assert here on earth, especially us Christians, by means of a holy life. A doxology with which we manifest our happiness and our gratitude to God. We are happy in the midst of suffering, and we praise God. We are happy, even though things aren’t going so well for us humanly speaking, for in this we perceive divine wisdom. We are happy, living in poverty and powerless, and we thank God for showing us his providence. We are happy, though illness may have stricken us and turned us into useless beings, so that God may be glorified in our ailing flesh and make more evident the power of his resurrection. We are happy, because we are at peace with God and with our conscience, because we believe in the victory of grace over sin, because we seek only the will and the glory of God. The so-called happiness that the world sells wholesale, but that merely lasts a day, and that is given ephemeral names like entertainment, pastime, pleasure, delight, revelry, contentment and others besides, is only particles, only atoms of true happiness. We reserve the term happiness for something greater: the possession and love of God, which started here on earth and will reach its climax in heaven. Such a doxology of a holy life may be sung anywhere here on earth: in church or at home, in the office or at the gym, in the mountains or at the beach. All we have to do is to keep Saint Augustine’s advice in mind, "Cantate ore, cantate corde; cantate semper, cantate bene," "Sing with your lips, sing with your heart; sing always, sing well."
Communion with the saints in Heaven. With the feast of All Saints’ Day, the Church celebrates all the deceased who already enjoy and will forever enjoy the love of God, the love for men and the love for each other. On the other hand, we are certain that if we live in a state of grace and friendship with God, we are already holy here on earth. There is thus a communion of saints. In other words, the saints in Heaven are united with us, they are concerned with us, they enlighten our lives with theirs, they intercede with God on our behalf. All will be able to say, like Theresa of Lisieux, "I will go to Heaven by doing good on earth." However, I especially wish to refer to the communion of the saints on earth with those in Heaven. They are our older brothers, who have preceded us in reaching the ultimate destination, and who long for the whole family to be reunited in eternity. They are the stars in our heavens that shed light upon us in the night, not with their own light but with that which they have received from the Triumphant Sun, who is Christ. They are homely models, so to speak, who in some way draw us close to a virtue or to an aspect of the fullness of perfection and holiness that is Jesus Christ. Shouldn’t we perhaps renew and revitalize our communion with the saints in heaven? Today is the right time to do so.
Source: http://www.clerus.org/clerus/dati/2004-05/21-13/CICLOC.html by P. ANTONIO IZQUIERDO L.C. (1948-2013)
[참고: 이 파일은 저서명 "가톨릭
교회의 말씀 전례에 따른 성경공부 해설서"(엮은이:
소순태, 출판사: 가톨릭출판사)의 각주의 연장으로
마련되었습니다].