SATURDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Solemnity of All Saints
Rv 7: 2-4, 9-14 Ps 24: 1-6 1 Jn 3: 1-3 Mt 5: 1-12
THE ROAD TO SANCTITY
We are celebrating today the solemnity of all the saints. The Church honours today all those who have lived a holy life and thus reminds all her faithful to walk the path of sanctity and holiness. We honour the saints today recognizing the mighty works done by God in their life. We glorify God by identifying God’s work in them. We also reflect on the life of the saints so that we are inspired by them and thus follow and imitate Christ more closely.
Who is a saint? A saint is the one who has shared in the divine life offered by the most holy Trinity. God invites everyone to be ‘holy as He is holy’ (Lev 19.2) and to be ‘perfect as He is’ (Mt 5.48). A saint is one who has wholeheartedly accepted this invitation and allowed the divine life to transform his/her weak, fragile and sinful self to a sincere and pure self. The festal readings of today help us to understand the call and the road to sanctity.
Saints are ‘Sealed Servants’: In the Baptism, the baptized gets an indelible mark or a seal that identifies the baptized as God’s children washing away the original sin in them. In Baptism begins one’s road to sanctity. This road has to be followed through a life of sacraments and the Word of God. Sacraments nourish them in their path that leads to perfection. Those who have trodden the road to sanctity are the servants of God who are sealed with the seal of the living God. They bear God in their life.
Saints are ‘Standing Servants’: ‘Who can stand before the living God’? According to the Psalmist, ‘those with clean hands and pure heart’ will stand before God (Ps 24.3-4). The holy ones of God stand before His throne and before the Lamb of God. Those who thus stand before God are the ones who are strengthened by God, they have persevered in living their faith and now they stand before the throne of God. They have witnessed to the Lamb of God in their life and now they are before Him because as Jesus said, ‘one who confesses Him before men, He will confess him before God the Father’ (Mt 10.32).
Saints are ‘White-clad servants’: At the transfiguration, Jesus’ clothes had become dazzling white. (Mt 17.2) His disciples who take the narrow path also will be clothed in white robes like Him. They are pure and righteous in the sight of God. Their robes are washed in the blood of the Lamb, and therefore, they have become white. The ‘Lamb who takes away the sin’ makes the soul pure and holy.
Saints are ‘Palm bearing servants’: As Jesus entered Jerusalem people welcomed Him by waving palm branches (Jn 12.13). The King begins His journey of triumph and victory over sin, death and the evil one. It culminates on Mount Calvary on the Cross and is fully manifested in His Resurrection. The saints have chosen to walk the path of the Lamb; they have undergone great persecution and tribulation for the sake of the Lord and His Gospel. They have undergone humiliations and heard all kinds of evil against them. In spite of all this, like the Master, they have persevered and become triumphant, and therefore, they bear the palm branches in their hands as a sign of victory and triumph. Saints are ‘Blessed Children of God’:
Saints are ‘blessed’ in every sense of the word. They are God’s children who have received the gratuitous gift of holiness from Him. They have allowed themselves to be transformed by the Father in living the beatitudes daily. They are poor both materially and spiritually. They mourn for their own sins and the sins of the world. They hunger and thirst for righteousness. God’s mercy flows through them, for they themselves have received mercy and know what it means to be merciful. Their hearts are pure and it has made them to see God in others, in the poor, in the stranger, in the neighbour, and now they see God face to face. They are peacemakers for they bring the peace of Christ to themselves and to others. Every Christian is called to such a life of holiness and sanctity. The narrow path of Jesus is before us. Let us embrace the way of the Cross to be glorified in Him and to partake in the ‘wedding feast of the Lamb.’
Response: These are the people who seek your face, O Lord.
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