Today we celebrate the Feast of All Saints, a celebration that offers a glimpse of what awaits all who remain faithful to Christ. We don’t often celebrate this feast on a Sunday; it happens only every five or six years. This is a wonderful opportunity for us reflect on “what love the Father has bestowed on us” because we are “called the children of God,” as we hear so clearly proclaimed in today’s second reading.
On this day, we experience the hope of unity, of wholeness. We find hope in the witness and example of those who have gone before us and are now in heaven. They faced the same challenges we do in their lives, in their families and within their communities, but persevered in their trust in God and now stand before God’s throne. We can find comfort and encouragement in our union with these saints because it reminds us that we are in union with the entire body of Christian believers, those who live here now, those who have gone before us and those who will come after us.
Each of the readings today tell us a little bit about this body of Christ, this union of Christian believers. As we hear in today’s first reading, we join today here at Mass with the great multitude from every nation, race, people and tongue who join with Jesus, the sacrificial Lamb, proclaiming “blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, honor, power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen.” As we hear in today’s second reading, we are all “children of God.” We are not separate members from different families, but brothers and sisters of one family – God’s family. We are the “multitude” – not from one place or time, but from every nation, every race, every people and every tongue.
And, as we hear in today’s well-known gospel account, we are the “blessed” – not blessed as the world bestows blessings. We are not the strong, the proud, owners of great fortune or the powerful. No, we are the poor in spirit, recognizing that our riches are found in God’s love, the meek who like Jesus before Pontius Pilate, stand in quiet testimony to the truth in a world filled with lies, not the ones who make war but make peace. We are those who show mercy, the clean of heart. We are the “children of God,” who strive to be united in our humility, our mercy, our pureness of heart.
That’s what we do as faithful stewards of the world our God has given us and the wonderful parish we call our spiritual home. After all, stewardship is what we do after we say, “I believe.” We believe in a God who is our loving father, a God who sent his son to save us from our sins and lead us back to our heavenly father. We believe in a God who calls us to build up his kingdom here on earth as we prepare to join with all the saints in the heavenly kingdom.
Let our celebration today of these holy men and women – the saints in glory – remind us of our union in Christ, of our one baptism shared across multitudes of people. Let it remind us of our call to live and care for one another as brothers and sisters – as children of one God – until that time when our God invites us to see him as he is.