The Christian Mind

Solemnity of All Saints C-2 (November 1)

Entrance Antiphon Let us all rejoice in the Lord, as we celebrate the feast day in honour of all the Saints, at whose festival the Angels rejoice and praise the Son of God.

Collect Almighty ever‑living God, by whose gift we venerate in one celebration the merits of all the Saints, bestow on us, we pray, through the prayers of so many intercessors, an abundance of the reconciliation with you for which we earnestly long. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

(November 1) All Saints The earliest certain observance of a feast in honour of all the saints is an early fourth-century commemoration of "all the martyrs." In the early seventh century, after successive waves of invaders plundered the catacombs, Pope Boniface IV gathered up some 28 wagonloads of bones and reinterred them beneath the Pantheon, a Roman temple dedicated to all the gods. The pope rededicated the shrine as a Christian church. According to Venerable Bede, the pope intended "that the memory of all the saints might in the future be honoured in the place which had formerly been dedicated to the worship not of gods but of demons" (On the Calculation of Time). But the rededication of the Pantheon, like the earlier commemoration of all the martyrs, occurred in May. Many Eastern Churches still honour all the saints in the spring, either during the Easter season or immediately after Pentecost. How the Western Church came to celebrate this feast in November is a puzzle to historians. The Anglo-Saxon theologian Alcuin observed the feast on November 1 in 800, as did his friend Arno, Bishop of Salzburg. Rome finally adopted that date in the ninth century.

“After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.... [One of the elders] said to me, ‘These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb’” (Revelation 7:9,14).

Scripture today: Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14; Psalm 24:1bc-6; 1 John 3:1-3; Matthew 5:1-12a

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach 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 earth. 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 pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven. (Matthew 5:1-12a)

The Christian Mind Let us begin by situating our Gospel passage in its context in the Gospel of St Matthew. The first two chapters of Matthew narrate the ancestry, birth and infancy of Jesus of Nazareth. He is the son of David, the son of Abraham, thoroughly of the Jewish race, and is the Messiah that was to come. Son as he was of Mary, it is Joseph her husband who receives the message from the Angel that the Child his wife bears is begotten in her of the Holy Spirit. He will save his people from their sins, and will be called God-with-us. The wise men from the East bear witness to his Messiahship, as do the shepherds who come with their news from heaven. But he is rejected, and must flee to Egypt. It is all a harbinger of what is to come. The scene shifts to the preaching of the prophet John, exhorting the people to prepare for the coming of the Lord by a baptism of repentance. A mighty one is coming who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. John’s ministry, briefly outlined in the chapter immediately following the infancy, passes away once he baptizes Jesus and passes the mantle to him. Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, goes into the desert to lock with Satan and begin his public ministry. He launches into his divine work, preaching, healing, summoning to follow him those who will be his Apostles. Matthew presents Jesus surrounded by future Apostles, being followed by a great multitude of people from all parts, teaching, preaching, driving out demons, and above all drawing the attention of all to the Kingdom of God that is to be found in him. With both the multitudes and his disciples before him, at this point Matthew pauses to give us a substantial presentation of the teaching of Jesus Christ. It is the Sermon on the Mount, and he begins with the famous Beatitudes, the summary in maxim form of who it is who will be blessed with possession of the Kingdom of God. The blessed ones in this life are those who possess the Kingdom. They will be comforted, filled, and granted mercy. They will be counted as God’s children, and will have a great reward in heaven.

The Sermon on the Mount is, together with St John’s Last Supper discourse, the longest continuous account by Jesus Christ of his teaching. It consists of some 117 verses of teaching over a great range of topics such as apostolate, prayer, anger at others, purity, divorce, oaths, love for others, almsgiving, detachment from riches, dependence on God, and many other matters. It could be said to be a brief compendium of the teaching of Jesus Christ on how we must live. Perhaps it was meant to be learned by heart, and Matthew had it conveniently together in one part of the Gospel scroll, at the commencement of our Lord’s ministry. But at the beginning he placed Christ’s summary description of the heart of the disciple. He was poor in spirit. He mourned for the state of mankind and the world. He was not a man of anger and strife, but was meek. He hungered for justice and all that was right. He was merciful and pure in heart. He made peace among men, and found himself persecuted because of righteousness. He was reviled because of his adherence to the person and doctrine of Jesus Christ. He rejoiced that he was found worthy to suffer thus, because so it was with the prophets before him. This was a very different man from that of the world, and was the fulfilment of what the Old Testament pointed to, for the simple reason that the disciple of Jesus Christ thus described was a reflection of his Master. Our Lord’s account of those who are truly blessed is a revelation of his own mind and heart. He is the one who synthesises in his own person the several aspects of authentic discipleship that he sets forth at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. Doubtlessly Christ often repeated these simple descriptions to his disciples of the kind of person he expected them to be, but he himself was the quintessential model of it all. They looked on him, remembered him, contemplated him, as the Exemplar of all he said of Christian living. It was what St Paul would later refer to as the mind of Jesus Christ — let this mind be in you, he would write, that was in Jesus Christ. The Beatitudes describe the mind of Jesus Christ and what it is to put on that mind.

Today is the feast of all those now with Christ in heaven: all the saints. They have attained the Kingdom definitively, finally, forever. Let us all our lives contemplate the person of Jesus Christ, striving to know him and to imitate his mind, heart, soul and life. He himself is at the heart of the Kingdom he announced, described and inaugurated. By entering into union with him and by living his life, we enter and possess the Kingdom. Grand are the prospects of those who enter! An eternity of bliss awaits them, and we celebrate today those now there. On this feast of all the saints, let us choose Jesus Christ as our Lord, now and forever.

(E.J.Tyler)

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A Second Reflection:

All The Saints On this day the Church celebrates the feast of all the unknown saints who are now in heaven. Their purification from sin has passed, and they are holy, sanctified, totally in Christ, and are consequently with God and the angels and saints for ever. Their life is utter happiness, happiness without end. They continue their work for us in heaven. We also think of this life and its true meaning: it is a preparation for our meeting with God. God made us to know, love and serve him here on earth so as to see and enjoy him forever in heaven. This is life's meaning. A great psychiatrist of the twentieth century, Victor Frankl, wrote that the secret to happiness especially in the midst of difficulties and suffering, lies in having a sense of the meaning of life. This is a good point, but it is so important that we possess not just any meaning, but the true meaning of life. Well, the Christian knows the true meaning of things because it has been revealed to us by Christ, and taught to us by the Church. We have all been called to holiness in Christ. Every day takes us nearer to the moment of judgment, and we will be judged on the degree of love that fills our heart: love for God and love for our neighbour.

Let us pray today that we will be led on to seek sanctity wholeheartedly by the loving fulfilment of our God-given duties in life.

(E.J.Tyler)