All Saints Day
Today’s solemnity of All Saints is our feast day and a call to holiness and the sanctification of ordinary life. In our First reading today from the book of Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14, Saint John in his vision tells us of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue, who have survived the time of great distress, washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands, praising God. With this vision, Saint John reminds us that as Christians we will face opposition, persecution and even death as part of our journey to heaven, but with firmness of faith in God and perseverance in our Christian life, we will surely attain the kingdom of heaven like the great multitude of saints in heaven.
Saint John in his first letter 3:1–3, our second reading today, informs us that we are loved and chosen by the Father and made His children, hence we are closer to His kingdom and we shall see Him as He is. In our gospel reading from the gospel of Saint Matthew 5:1–12a, Jesus while recognizing the wide range of people in front of Him and their gifts, tells us who can attain the kingdom of heaven and how we can attain the kingdom of heaven. He in fact, sanctified the ordinary human life and gave us a blueprint or resumé of sainthood, which is doing the simple and regular practices of everyday life in extraordinary ways like being merciful, meek, being peacemakers, poor in spirit, hungry and thirsty for righteousness, clean of heart, by being insulted and persecuted because of God etc.
So how can we become Saints tomorrow? A while ago, Pope John Paul II now Saint John Paul II once said in his audience that the Church is made up of two groups of people, sinners and saints and it is the sinners of today that will become the saints of tomorrow. We can become saints tomorrow by answering the Call to Holiness which entails living out the gospel of Christ and living our daily lives in a holy way, thereby sanctify our human life since the Father has bestowed His love upon us and we are children of God as St. John reminds us in our second reading today. Living our daily lives in a holy way involves saying 'Yes' to God in our thoughts, words and actions by doing everything we do for the greater glory of God's holy name. We can also become Saints tomorrow by working hard in our spiritual lives with perseverance and firmness of faith in God like the great multitude as we heard in the first reading, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue, who have survived the time of great distress, washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb; stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands, praising God.
My dear brothers and sisters, as St. John Paul II once said, “let us to look to heaven, the goal of our earthly pilgrimage. The festive community of saints awaits us there. There we will meet our dear departed for whom we now raise our prayer. Amen!
