01 November 2022 – All Saints (Year C)

By Fr Francis Anthony

Dear friends,

When we read the readings that are given for this Feast of All the Saints, I cannot but help to glorify God. God is always successful. Nobody can overcome His goodness, His love, His mercy.

As I said earlier, as early as Chapter 3 of Genesis, after the fall of Adam and Eve, God promised that He will save them from their wrongdoing. And that goes through the whole of the Old Testament, promising that His blessing would be for all and in the Old Testament itself, through Abraham was called in Chapter 12 of Genesis, that He would bless his descendants. And very often we have the notion that God is only for the Jewish people. No way. Right in the Old Testament itself universalism has come in, that God’s promise is for all. He will raise them up from the grave. He will pour clean waters over them. He will give them a heart of flesh. He’ll give them His spirit. And this promises were made to all the people, not exclusively for one race.

And this is very beautifully summed up in today’s First Reading from St John’s work, the Apocalypse, Chapter 7, where all the people throughout the nation, irrespective of their colour, their race, will be gathered around God, praising Him, glorifying Him. Yes, these are not my words. It is the ultimate victory of God, the fulfillment of the promise that He will save.

In Genesis itself, in the first chapter, when God created and after each creation, the line comes in – And it was good. Ecology was good. People were good under the banner of Adam and Eve. But sin distorted that harmony. The sin that came and brought about selfishness, anger, jealousy, we see it as early as the story of Cain and Abel. Jealousy leading right up to murder.

But God’s plan did not fail.

And in the Gospel text, the Beatitudes, the goodness is seen in the people reflecting God’s goodness. God is meek, God is kind, God is forgiving, God is love, He wants justice. And He sees the people, Jesus talking to the crowd as recorded in Matthew’s Gospel and to the disciples, He told them it is only when you look to the other for the well-being of the other that you will be blessed. He did not enumerate which are the sins you have to avoid. He was telling them how we should live in society, in relationship with others.

And if I run through some of the Beatitudes, the blessedness, the poor in spirit, the one, the poor in spirit has nothing to do with no money. That you are caring for others, that you want others to be having a life of comfort. As the text said, the kingdom of God is yours.

Then he says, you are gentle, you are meek. And when you are gentle, you are meek, it is in relationship to others. Yes, when you are gentle and meek, you are showing concern to others. Then He goes on, the one who hungers and thirsts. Not just hungry for food, for justice. For truth. And when you are concern of that, you know things are going wrong in society. You have to stand up.

And if I can stretch it a bit, like for us, we are waiting for this November 19th, our election day. We want justice. And please, unless you have grave reason, if you do not vote, it is not showing your concern for others. We are coming to be a selfish person. It’s me, why must I vote, it’s enough. I tried to change the Government and I’ve failed miserably in the last election. We look forward.

And it goes on to say peacemakers. Let us act like God. God so loved the world He sent His Son. The Son, Jesus, so loved us He died for us so that we may be alive with the light of God.

So my dear friends, when we celebrate the Feast of All the Saints, yes, not all are enumerated but right through the ages, the people with all their weaknesses have been striving, striving to be with God. The persecution, the rejection did not turn them away. And because it is God who is with them.

And as we celebrate this Feast today, let us thank God for opening our eyes as we saw in the First Reading that all the nations were gathered around the kingdom of God and they were praising God together with the angels and the Saints.

And in Saint Paul’s epistle, saints does not refer to what we see all those saints, the statues that we have and many more, he called US, yes the ordinary people then, called them ‘you are saints’ because you have given up your former ways and you are following Jesus, and you are being purified by the blood and water that have come from the side of Jesus.

And the Saints, very fittingly we are celebrating the gift of God in us and to us. Yes.

And when we say we celebrate our Feast day today, yes, God has chosen us just as He chose all those people who lived before us and those who are proclaimed His saints and those many more not proclaimed but they are in the presence of God. And we, through baptism, we have become the Children of God.

And as a Child of God, we are saints. It is not presumption. It is a reality. And when we understand the dignity that is ours due to the sacraments, especially baptism, God has come to us. God is dwelling in us. God has raised us up and I will conclude with Mark’s Gospel:

Why has God come to us?

Because He wants to give me a chance to live a life of union with Him. He has taken away the obstacles, the hurdles that are before me. He has come to give me new life as He raised up Peter’s mother-in-law who was just having fever but a terminology used in Greek is the same as resurrection. He has given us new life and why? And the next episode in Mark’s Gospel is to relate with others.

So we safeguard our sainthood, each one of us by living according to God’s love and mercy as reflected in the Beatitudes that we had for our Gospel. Let us rejoice and be glad for the reward is great and the reward is not just in heaven. The reward is with us right now.

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