All Saints
Memorial of all the saints whose names are written in heaven. In communion with them, we turn to the Lord, recognizing ourselves as his children.
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All Saints
Memorial of all the saints whose names are written in heaven. In communion with them, we turn to the Lord, recognizing ourselves as his children.
First Reading
Revelation 7,2-4.9-14
Then I saw another angel rising where the sun rises, carrying the seal of the living God; he called in a powerful voice to the four angels whose duty was to devastate land and sea, 'Wait before you do any damage on land or at sea or to the trees, until we have put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.' And I heard how many had been sealed: a hundred and forty-four thousand, out of all the tribes of Israel. After that I saw that there was a huge number, impossible for anyone to count, of people from every nation, race, tribe and language; they were standing in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palms in their hands. They shouted in a loud voice, 'Salvation to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!' And all the angels who were standing in a circle round the throne, surrounding the elders and the four living creatures, prostrated themselves before the throne, and touched the ground with their foreheads, worshipping God with these words: Amen. Praise and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honour and power and strength to our God for ever and ever. Amen. One of the elders then spoke and asked me, 'Who are these people, dressed in white robes, and where have they come from?' I answered him, 'You can tell me, sir.' Then he said, 'These are the people who have been through the great trial; they have washed their robes white again in the blood of the Lamb.
Psalmody
Psalm 23
Antiphon
Lord you are the king of glory.
The Lord is the earth and its fullness,
the world and all its peoples.
It is he who set it on the seas;
on the waters he made it firm.
Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord?
Who shall stand in his holy place?
The man with clean hands and pure heart,
who desires not worthless things
who has not sworn so as to deceive his neighbour,
He shall receive blessings from the Lord
and reward from the God who saves him.
Such are the men who seek him,
seek the face of the God of Jacob.
O gates, lift high your heads;
grow higher, ancient doors.
Let him enter, the king of glory!
Who is the king of glory?
The Lord, the mighty, the valiant,
the Lord, the valiant in war.
O gates, lift high your heads;
grow higher ancient doors.
Let him enter, the king of glory!
Who is he the king of glory?
He, the Lord of armies, he is the king of glory.
Second Reading
1 John 3,1-3
You must see what great love the Father has lavished on us by letting us be called God's children -- which is what we are! The reason why the world does not acknowledge us is that it did not acknowledge him. My dear friends, we are already God's children, but what we shall be in the future has not yet been revealed. We are well aware that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he really is. Whoever treasures this hope of him purifies himself, to be as pure as he is.
Reading of the Gospel
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Yesterday I was buried with Christ,
today I rise with you who are risen.
With you I was crucified;
remember me, Lord, in your kingdom.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Matthew 5,1-12
Seeing the crowds, he went onto the mountain. And when he was seated his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak. This is what he taught them: How blessed are the poor in spirit: the kingdom of Heaven is theirs. Blessed are the gentle: they shall have the earth as inheritance. Blessed are those who mourn: they shall be comforted. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for uprightness: they shall have their fill. Blessed are the merciful: they shall have mercy shown them. Blessed are the pure in heart: they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: they shall be recognised as children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted in the cause of uprightness: the kingdom of Heaven is theirs. 'Blessed are you when people abuse you and persecute you and speak all kinds of calumny against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven; this is how they persecuted the prophets before you.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Yesterday I was buried with Christ,
today I rise with you who are risen.
With you I was crucified;
remember me, Lord, in your kingdom.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Homily
Today is the feats of all saints. The Book of Revelation seems to make us contemplate them: "There was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands." They are men and women coming from every nation and people, all different for stories and belonging, but they all welcomed God's mercy and persevered on the way of the Gospel. It is large , borderless people that now live in the House of the Father where there are many dwellings and where the risen Jesus went to prepare a place for everyone. It is not a people separated from us in a distant and inaccessible place. This feast helps us understand that holiness does not begin after one's death, but from the time one becomes part of the "familia Dei" and is "separated" (this is the meaning of "holy") from the destiny of sin and death and we are made part of the holy people of God. John, in his first letter, reminds the often forgetful disciples this extraordinary gift we have received from the Lord: "See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are... Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed."
We are now children of God, precisely, because we have been welcomed into His people, because we are generated by this Mother who continues to bend down lovingly and patiently over us to lead us upwards, to heaven, to the holy people who are in front of to the Lord. The Church accompanies us every day on the paths of mercy, uninterruptedly gathers us for prayer in the many places scattered around the world and makes us look up to the heaven of God, as if to let us taste today what we will be tomorrow. Holiness is not a private way, it is not a reward for personal achievements or merits, it is not an individual journey.
Contemplating the face of the Church still pilgrim on earth, but which has many children already in heaven, we see the faces of the brothers and sisters who have been given to us, we meet the gaze of the poor and the weak that the Lord asks us to love and to serve as brothers and sisters. Yes, this Mother (the Church) and the poor are the visible face on earth of that holy people who have already reached heaven. In this vision we inscribe our thoughts, our actions, our choices, our projects, because this is the holy people of God. Walking with this people means walking on the path of holiness. The saints are not those who never sin. The saints are not those who believe they are righteous. Saints are those who never cease to be with this mother by witnessing love, working for justice and peace, looking at the poor and weak with merciful and moved eyes. Saints are also the sinners who kneel before the Lord and weep for their sins. That's why everyone, really everyone, can be saints. We sinners are made holy when we allow ourselves to be loved by this Mother.
Prayer is the heart of the life of the Community of Sant'Egidio and is its absolute priority. At the end of the day, every the Community of Sant'Egidio, large or small, gathers around the Lord to listen to his Word. The Word of God and the prayer are, in fact, the very basis of the whole life of the Community. The disciples cannot do other than remain at the feet of Jesus, as did Mary of Bethany, to receive his love and learn his ways (Phil. 2:5).
So every evening, when the Community returns to the feet of the Lord, it repeats the words of the anonymous disciple: " Lord, teach us how to pray". Jesus, Master of prayer, continues to answer: "When you pray, say: Abba, Father". It is not a simple exhortation, it is much more. With these words Jesus lets the disciples participate in his own relationship with the Father. Therefore in prayer, the fact of being children of the Father who is in heaven, comes before the words we may say. So praying is above all a way of being! That is to say we are children who turn with faith to the Father, certain that they will be heard.
Jesus teaches us to call God "Our Father". And not simply "Father" or "My Father". Disciples, even when they pray on their own, are never isolated nor they are orphans; they are always members of the Lord's family.
In praying together, beside the mystery of being children of God, there is also the mystery of brotherhood, as the Father of the Church said: "You cannot have God as father without having the church as mother". When praying together, the Holy Spirit assembles the disciples in the upper room together with Mary, the Lord's mother, so that they may direct their gaze towards the Lord's face and learn from Him the secret of his Heart.
The Communities of Sant'Egidio all over the world gather in the various places of prayer and lay before the Lord the hopes and the sufferings of the tired, exhausted crowds of which the Gospel speaks ( Mat. 9: 3-7 ), In these ancient crowds we can see the huge masses of the modern cities, the millions of refugees who continue to flee their countries, the poor, relegated to the very fringe of life and all those who are waiting for someone to take care of them. Praying together includes the cry, the invocation, the aspiration, the desire for peace, the healing and salvation of the men and women of this world. Prayer is never in vain; it rises ceaselessly to the Lord so that anguish is turned into hope, tears into joy, despair into happiness, and solitude into communion. May the Kingdom of God come soon among people!
For the sick, in memory of the dead, for peace
