Revelation 7:2 – 4, 9 -14
This Sunday, we interrupt our ordinary celebration of Sundays of the Year because an important Solemnity happens to land on Sunday: All Saints. This feast gives us the opportunity to reflect on a very important aspect of our faith: our belief in God’s promise for everlasting life with him in heaven. Before we review the readings that are recommended for this Sunday, let’s review the development of belief in everlasting life in the history of our faith. As I have mentioned in the past, it is part of human nature to want to live forever. Why do you think we spend so much time, energy and money on looking young? The cosmetic and medical industry capitalizes on this deeply-seated desire to be immortal. I’m constantly amazed when I read how much money is spent here in America in the lotions and potions that have no other purpose than to make us look younger. And now, there has arisen a multi-billion dollar branch of the medical industry that focuses on nothing other than keeping people looking young.
But, it’s all part of our deep-seated desire to live forever. This was felt in the ancient world, as well, and different peoples had different solutions. The people in India came to propose reincarnation as the way to achieve immortality; you die and are reborn over and over again. The ancient Egyptians seemed to be obsessed with their desire for immortality. Those who could afford it would have large burial chambers prepared for themselves, filled with all the provisions they needed to travel from this world over the River Styx to the world of the gods. When they died, their bodies were embalmed so they could make this journey and live forever in the next.
The ancient Israelites had no sense of personal immortality. You will recall that part of the creation/temptation story deals with death. Let’s read Genesis 2:5-17; 3:1-5, 19. Their belief is best seen in Psalm 90:1-6. That’s why longevity and progeny were so important to them.
In exilic and post-exilic Israel, however, the notion of life after death began to be explored. In the Book of Job, for example, we read: 10:20-22. Let’s also look at Psalm 49:1-16, Daniel 12:1-3, and 2 Maccabees 12:38-46. Whereas the earlier passages speak of a murky, almost unconscious existence in Sheol, the later ones are most positive and speak of living in God’s presence.
With this background, the passage we will hear on Sunday offers a great deal of hope and consolation in the face of death.
2) [I, John,] saw another angel come up from the East, holding the seal of the living God.
East: literally, “rising of the sun.” The east was considered the source of light and the place of paradise (Gn 2:8).
He cried out in a loud voice to the four angels who were given power to damage the land and the sea,
3) “Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.”
seal of the living God…seal on the foreheads: As you will read in your footnotes, in the ancient world, whatever was marked by the impression of one’s signet ring belonged to that person and was under his protection. We see this in 2 Cor 1:21 – 22, Eph. 1:11 – 14, 4:30. This also reminds us of the blood on the doorposts that saved the ancient Israelites from the hand of God that struck down the firstborn of the Egyptians (cf. Ex. 12:7 -14). We also see a similar marking in Ezekiel 9:1 – 7.
4) I heard the number of those who had been marked with the seal, one hundred and forty-four thousand marked* from every tribe of the Israelites:
one hundred and forty-four thousand: you can see the symbolism here: 12 x 12 multiplied by a thousand!
Matthew 5:1 – 12a
The passage that we will hear on Sunday speaks of how we earn eternal life. We’re all familiar with it even though we hear it only once in our three year Sunday cycle, in year A on the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time. We didn’t hear it this year, however, since it was the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. Most Scripture scholars would agree that the Sermon on the Mount, which begins with the Beatitudes and continues to chapter 7, does not recall a single event in Jesus’ public life but is, instead, a well-presented summary of our Lord’s teachings. It is the first of five discourses that the final redactor of Matthew’s Gospel includes in his carefully prepared work.
The Beatitudes have a parallel in Luke’s Gospel; it is abbreviated and there it is called the Sermon on the Plain because it is addressed to a Gentile audience heavily influenced by the Greek culture. You will recall that, while the ancient Jews believed that the gods resided up in the mountains (that’s why the holy places like Bethel and Shechem and Jerusalem were all mountains; and remember that Moses encountered God on Mount Sinai, Elijah encountered God on Mount Carmel and Jesus was transfigured on Mount Tabor), the Greeks encountered their gods in the presentations in amphitheaters, which were built in the plain surrounded by mountains to provide acoustical support. Let’s read Luke’s version first (cf. 6:20 – 23). It’s curious that, in Luke’s Gospel, it appears that Jesus, although surrounded by a crowd, is addressing his disciples while in Matthew’s Gospel, he addresses the entire crowd (cf. Mt. 7:28). Also, in Luke’s Gospel, the blessings are followed by curses (cf. 6:24 – 26); this is not found in Matthew’s Gospel but in the Letter of James. It reminds us of the blessings and curses we find in Deuteronomy 28.
Just as the 613 rules and regulations that we find in the Hebrew Scriptures fleshed out the 10 Commandments, so these Beatitudes flesh out the great commandment that Jesus gave us – love God and neighbor. We find ourselves blessed by God as we follow our Lord’s teachings offered so beautifully here:
1) When he saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him.
2) He began to teach them, saying:
3) “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
poor in spirit: unlike Luke’s version, which seeks to console those early Christians who were suffering from material poverty due to the persecution they were suffering as a result of their belief in Jesus, Matthew’s Gospel calls us to recognize our total dependence upon God.
4) Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.
they who mourn: We mourn, recognizing our sinfulness, and God in his mercy will comfort us.
5) Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.
the meek: recall how our Lord, the almighty Son of God, behaved in front of Pontius Pilate. He could have strongly defended himself – after, all he was right – but, instead, he stood silent and meek before him so that he could accomplish the Father’s will for him. We are called to the same meekness as we do God’ will for us.
6) Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.
they who hunger and thirst for righteousness: We, who have sinned, are called to deeply desire a right relationship with God. If we repent, God will satisfy our deepest longing.
7) Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
the merciful: In the Lord’s Prayer, we say: “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” God will be merciful to us as we are merciful to those around us.
8) Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.
9) Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10) Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11) Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you [falsely] because of me.
12) Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.
1 John 3:1 – 3
According to ancient tradition, John’s letters came from John the apostle. Because of their resemblance to the fourth gospel in style, vocabulary, and ideas, it is generally agreed that both works are the product of the same school of Johannine Christianity. The terminology and the presence or absence of certain theological ideas in 1 John suggest that it was written after the gospel; it may have been composed as a short treatise on ideas that were developed more fully in the fourth gospel. To others, the evidence suggests that 1 John was written after the fourth gospel as part of a debate on the proper interpretation of that gospel.
Whatever its relation to the gospel, 1 John may be dated toward the end of the first century. Unlike 2 and 3 John, it lacks in form the salutation and epistolary conclusion of a letter. These features, its prologue, and its emphasis on doctrinal teaching make it more akin to a theological treatise than to most other New Testament letters. The purpose of the letter is to combat certain false ideas, especially about Jesus, and to deepen the spiritual and social awareness of the Christian community. This Sunday’s reading encourages us, who are blessed to be God’s children by adoption through his Son, to place our hope in him so that “we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is”!
1) See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
See what love the Father has bestowed on us: The greatest sign of God’s love is the gift of his Son that has made us true children of God. This relationship is a present reality and also part of the life to come; true knowledge of God will ultimately be gained and we, followers of Christ, prepare ourselves now by virtuous lives in imitation of Jesus.
2) Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
3) Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure.
The Solemnity of All Saints commemorates all of the saints – those known and unknown – who have preceded us in death and are now enjoying the eternal joy of being in God’s presence. All three readings affirm our belief in personal immortality and help us attain it. As we join together on Sunday to rejoice in the saints and to pray for our loved ones who have gone before us – at the 9:30am live streamed Masse, we will remember all of those in our parish who have died this past year – we reaffirm our hope in the resurrection and we look forward to the time when we will all join with our loved ones in God’s eternal loving embrace!