All Saints

Apoc 7:2-4, 9-14 – Ps 23 – 1 Jn 3:1-3 – Mt 5:1-12

 by Bishop Hugh Gilbert OSB

Today, we celebrate all those ‘standing in front of the throne and of the Lamb’. Who are they? Surely, all those figures of the Old Testament, from Abel and Abraham onwards, and all those of the New Testament, Mary and Joseph and John the Baptist, Peter and Paul, James and John and all the Apostles, Mary Magdalene, Stephen and Mark and Luke, and so on. It’s a litany, a procession. The saints of Scripture lead it. Then follow the great saints of Church history, the martyrs first, and all the holy folk we celebrate in the course of the year or find in Dictionaries of Saints or Martyrologies – all the way through to Mother Teresa or St John Paul II. But this is only the beginning. Perhaps these named, known saints are akin to the 144,000 in the first reading. Perhaps they are mediators of grace for the rest, Mary especially. But ‘after that – the reading goes on – I saw a huge number, a great crowd, which no one could count, people from every nation, race, tribe and language.’ Face upon face! Some, please God, people we’ve known and loved, others from every period of history and corner of the world. Perhaps many who did not know Christ or the Church in their own lifetime. But secretly strengthened by God, they lived upright lives and the beatitudes found a home in them. And God the Father has gathered them in. They too have ‘washed their robes white again in the blood of the Lamb’. They have been redeemed by Christ, the only Saviour. They are members of his Body now, with seats at the heavenly banquet.

This is the vision of today.

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