Texts taken from the Missal “On Your Word” November-December 2021

All Saints (solemnity)
proper

FIRST READING

From the Book of Revelation of Saint John the Apostle (Rev 7:2-4, 9-14)
I, John, saw another angel ascending from the east, with the seal of the living God. He cried out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been granted permission to devastate the earth and the sea: “Do not devastate the earth or the sea or the trees until we have marked the servants of our God with the seal on their foreheads.” And 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 children of Israel. After this I saw: behold, a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb.” And all the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and they bowed down with their faces to the ground before the throne and worshiped God, saying: “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen.” Then one of the elders addressed me and said: “These wearing white robes, who are they and where did they come from?” I said to him: “My lord, you know.” And he said to me: “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” – The word of God.

Reflection on the first reading

“Salvation belongs to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb.” This is the whole Gospel, the good news that the angels and saints in heaven proclaim in a loud voice so that it may be heard here by us. A cry of love that fills the heart, swallowing up every remnant of fear we carry within us. The contemplation of the immense multitude of saints that the text of Revelation offers us today nourishes our hope, but above all makes us hunger for holiness. We are invited to lift our gaze and fix it on the heavenly Jerusalem toward which - as the liturgy makes us pray - we hasten our steps. The white garment, made so by the blood of the Lamb, worn by the redeemed, is the same one that Christ “wore” on the mountain of the Transfiguration: it is the mystery of his life in those who are his forever. A hymn of praise and love resounds beneath heaven’s vaults: “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God.” Words familiar to us, the same ones we repeat in our earthly liturgy, a foretaste and anticipation of the heavenly one.

SECOND READING

From the first letter of Saint John the Apostle (1 Jn 3:1-3)
Beloved, see what great love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God. And so we are! For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. – The word of God.

Reflection on the second reading

We are children of God not figuratively, but truly, by grace and not by merit. Saint John had already promised this to us at the beginning of his Gospel: “But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God” (Jn 1:12). Having become children in the Son, we are called to reveal the divine mystery through our entire lives. Between the “already” of the gift and the “not yet” of the fullness of glory lies our commitment to respond to the vocation we have received. We are called to live a new life that bears witness to God’s real presence. How can we do this concretely? By living the life of everyone else, but as children loved by the Father, without waiting for living conditions that God has not promised us, and instead responding here and now to the divine call, living the grace of the present moment. If we trust in God and in his love for us, then we will no longer say that the circumstances of daily life - often marked by hardship, illness, and pain - are an obstacle to living the universal call to holiness. We will discover that they are precisely its opportunity.

GOSPEL OF THE DAY

From the Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 5:1-12a)
At that time, when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He began to speak and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.” The Gospel of the Lord.

Reflection on the Gospel of the day

The mountain, in the language of Sacred Scripture, is the quintessential place of encounter with God. Today’s Gospel not only presents Jesus going up the mountain, but also sitting on it, as if to say that the special teaching seat from which Jesus speaks to and instructs us is the intimate and profound communion that binds him to the Father; he wants to bring us into this communion. For this reason his Word is authoritative, goes straight to the heart, and explains life. The beatitudes that Jesus gives us, even before pointing out the right direction for our lives, speak to us first and foremost of him: they are a kind of biography of Jesus’ heart. In them, the heart of our Savior is revealed to us. Living the beatitudes means desiring to live the life of Christ, or rather, allowing Jesus Christ to come and live his holiness in us. No moralism, then, and no effort driven by willpower, but a gift to be welcomed. This is the secret of holiness: not so much giving everything to the Lord, because we would always be the ones deciding the measure and would certainly leave out some decisive aspect of our lives, but allowing the Lord to take all of us. Then we will truly be blessed, savoring here on earth a foretaste of Paradise.