FEAST OF ALL SAINTS, NOVEMBER 1, 2009

SOLEMNITY OF ALL SAINTS, NOVEMBER 1, 2009

&= nbsp; In our Catholic tradition, November is a special time for remembering those who have gone before us to eternal life with God. At this Mass we carried in process= ion candles with the names of our loved ones who had died into God this past year. They have joined the co= mpany of all the saints. As we reme= mber them in a special way at this Mass of All Saints, perhaps the best tribute = we can give to them is to live the way we are supposed to live as followers of Christ, the way they would want us to.&nbs= p; May their beloved memory influence the way in which we live and inte= ract with others, as we try to put the teachings of Jesus more into practice in = our lives.

&= nbsp; The origins of today’s feast of All Saints go back to a feast in honor of all the martyrs celebrated already in the fourth century. It was eventually expanded to include all the saints and commemorated on various dates. The Roman church put i= t on November 1 in the year 844, perhaps in connection with a harvest feast in <= st1:place w:st=3D"on">England on the Celtic New Year’s Day. As one of our oldest feasts, it's not surprising that so many legends and stories surround this celebration and the nig= ht of Halloween (All Hallows’ Evening) that precedes it. The readings= for the feast add to the mystique.

&n= bsp; Our first reading was taken from chapter 7 of the book of Revelation (2-4,9-14). = The book of Revelation is a type of literature quite foreign to us today. It is basically a work written in = code to encourage Christians suffering for their faith to persevere. It is extremely obscure. The author resorts regularly to expressions and categories of thought that have long since ceased to be use= d in literature and cannot be understood apart from their historical background. Apocalyptic symbo= ls are everywhere.

&= nbsp; One would find it difficult and rather repulsive to visualize a lamb with seven horns and seven eyes; yet Jesus is described in precisely such words (5:6). These words symbolize Christ’s universal power and knowledge—seven being the symbol of universality, horns the symbol of power, and eyes the symbol of knowledge.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> The lurid descriptions of the great harlot Babylon (Rome) are likewise literary devices. And the cries of vengeance on the = lips of Christian martyrs are just meant to evoke in the reader a feeling of hor= ror for apostasy.

&= nbsp; The seer had described in chapter 4 a vision of the heavenly court worshiping G= od enthroned. In chapter 5, he describes a scroll in God's right hand with seven seals, indicating the importance of the message. A = mighty angel asks who is worthy to open the scroll. There is despair at first, but the= n an elder tells him that Christ has won the right to open it. After the first six seals are open= ed in chapter 6, we now get as an interlude the passage in today's reading, in wh= ich two visions precede the breaking of the seventh seal, just as two more will separate the sixth and seventh trumpets.&n= bsp;

&= nbsp; In the first vision, the elect—144,000 (the square of 12, the number of Israel's tribes, multiplied by a thousand, symbolic of the new Israel that embraces people "from every nation, race, people, and tongue")—these elect receive the seal of the living God as protection against the coming cataclysm, when they thought the sun, moon, a= nd stars would fall from the sky.

&= nbsp; The second vision portrays faithful Christians before God's throne—to encourage those of us still on earth to persevere to the end. These are depicted as clothed in w= hite robes and bearing palm branches, symbols of joy and victory, respectively, = as they appear in their glory, victorious over persecution. They break into a hymn of joy that= will recur twice later in this book: at the fall of the dragon, the symbol of ev= il, in chapter 12 and of Babylon, the symbol o= f Rome, in chapter 1= 9. They ascribe their salvation direc= tly to God, who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb. These are the ones who have surviv= ed the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white (an allusion to the white robes worn at baptism) in the blood of the Lamb (an allusion to the eucharistic= liturgy).

Our second reading from the so-called First Letter of John (3:1-3) says that the greatest sign of God's love is the gift of his Son that has made us true children of God. To the unknown author of this letter, this relations= hip to God as children is not only a present reality but also in a fuller sense= an aspect of the eternal life to come, in which our relationship to God will be complete. Then we will indeed be like Christ, whose relationship to G= od is unique. Right now, this vision is a hope, the reality of which is shown in our striving for virtue. This is the deposit, our down payme= nt on eternal life with God, since by imitating Christ we already begin to live that life.

The gospel passage (Matthew 5:1-12) gives a secondary version of what we kn= ow as the Beatitudes. A more original form is found in the gospel accord= ing to Luke, in which four miserable human conditions are paradoxically pronoun= ced blessed: "Blessed are you poor. Blessed are you who are hungry. Blessed are you who weep. Blessed are you when people h= ate you." This is to say that our happiness, our blessedness, does n= ot depend on external circumstances.

But the later Christian writer who composed the gospel we call according to Matthew turns these stark paradoxes into a moral code, taking them out of t= heir social context and perhaps watering them down in the process. "Blessed are you poor” becomes “Blessed are the poor in spirit," i.e., it doesn’t matter if you have money or not, so long as you’re not attached to it. “Blessed are you who a= re hungry” becomes “Blessed are they who hunger (and thirst= ) for righteousness." He then uses these to introduce the teaching= s of Jesus that bring us to a new and deeper understanding of the interior righteousness that should characterize Ch= ristianity as opposed to obedience to an external law code. Th= is deeper understanding is illustrated by six antitheses, beginning with "It was said [in the commandments], 'Do not kill'; but I say to you, 'Do not even be angry with another.'" In other words= , do not have an attitude of mind that would ever result in a violent or unjust act. Virtue or sin is in our attitude, our state of mind; our actions= are symptoms of our attitude.

= As Christians we are called to follow= Jesus, to have the same attitude of mind that he had, to share his spirit. We are called to reject all violence, to repudiate all vengea= nce, never to return evil for evil, to love one another at all times and in all circumstances. We must strive= to be poor in spirit, gentle, kind, humble, peace-loving, and nonviolent in our present life, as we live in hope of a final consummation in God's presence.=

&nb= sp; This is the greatest tribute we can give to our loved ones who preceded us in faith—to live according to the faith that they professed. Our remembrance of them should also point our own minds and hearts = toward the future that awaits all of us also.&nbs= p; God remains faithful in death and beyond death. Death is not the end, nor does it destroy the bonds that we forge in our lives. When we die, we die into that Absolute we call God.= Death means consummation, infinite fulfillment, the transformation o= f our whole person by God’s life-creating Spirit. As our eucharistic preface says, “Life is change= d, not ended.” The same Spirit that enliv= ens us for holiness of life is the source of eternal life—for all of us who believe in Christ and for all who seek God in truth and sincerity of heart.=