SOLEMNITY
OF ALL SAINTS – 2020
Ø This is the 31st Sunday in
Ordinary time.
Ø However, in the liturgical calendar
of this year instead of the 31st. Sunday we will celebrate the
solemnity of All Saints.
Ø The Saints are our brothers and
sisters who made of the love of God and neighbor the guide of their life.
THE BOOK OF REVELATION
Ø The book of Revelation or Apocalypse
manifests the historical situation of the Christian community, persecuted by
the Roman Empire.
Ø We may synthesize the content of the
book as follows:
o The Christian community purified by
the word of Christ, wisely illuminated and guided by the Spirit, faces up the
oppressive world, for keeping alive the living testimony of Jesus. It suffers
the same fate as her Lord, persecution and rejection and death.
o But of the Revelation – of the
visions and revelations that Christ gives her, the Church gains the strength
needed to stand firm before the threat, the spell and the charm of the Empire.
o This is the book of the Christian
testimony, of the Christian martyrs, those who have worshiped neither the Beast
nor its image.
Ø The message of the Apocalypse or Book
of Revelation is wrapped and hidden within a series of symbols and images, some
are difficult to understand. We need to go deep into the symbol in order to
decode the meaning and within the events, liturgies, battles… to go beyond what
we see and use our imagination to discover their meaning for our life today,
here and now.
Ø It is not a book of the past but of
the present.
FIRST READING Rev 7:2-4, 9-14.
The book of
Revelation, also called Apocalypse, offers in this reading a very attractive
vision of heaven.
Ø John, sees some angels who are
responsible to strike and punish the earth
Ø But another angel stops them until
all the servants of God will be sealed.
Ø John says that these servants are
innumerable 144,000 (12x12x1000) the 12 tribes of Israel, the 12 apostles
and 1,000 which is the number of the history of salvation.
Ø Besides them, he sees also a huge
crowd of people from other races, tongues, countries, who are in front of the
throne like the 144,000.
Ø These are the members of the New
Israel, the new people of God, who come from all the races and corners of the
earth.
Ø From the description the authors
makes of them we deduce that they have given their life for their faith, the
martyrs.
Ø They sing and praise God for his
greatness, he is seated on the throne, and they also sing to the lamb.
Ø This lamb which is described in some
other place to be standing and being slain at the same time is the risen
Jesus.
Ø The angels, the heavenly beings who
are around the altar, the servants of God sing also his praises
Ø One of the elders asks John, who are
these clothed in white… where do they come from?
Ø These are those who have survived the
great tribulation and have washed their garments in the blood of the lamb…
Ø What a paradox, to wash in blood.
Yes, all of us have washed and are washed continually in the blood of our
Brother and Savior Jesus.
Ø All are standing, as a sign of victory, like the Lamb
who is standing; they partake in the resurrection of Jesus.
Responsorial Psalm: PS
24:1bc-2, 3-4ab, 5-6
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see
your face.
The LORD’s are the
earth and its fullness;
the world and those who dwell in it.
For he founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
Who can ascend the
mountain of the LORD?
or who may stand in his holy place?
One whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean,
who desires not what is vain.
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
He shall receive a blessing from the LORD,
a reward from God his savior.
Such is the race that seeks him,
that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
Ø To seek the face of God. What a beautiful expression which describes
the longing of the one who is in love with God, and wishes to enter into the
eternal vision of the God that he or she
has been seeking and loving during his or her entire life.
Ø These are our brothers and sisters
whom we call “saints”
SECOND READING 1 Jn 3:1-3
Ø It is the love of God which makes us
his children.
Ø This is why the world does not know
us, as it never knew Jesus.
Ø Thus the world, in its negative
meaning as the place of sin, has persecuted Jesus, and also the followers of
Jesus over the centuries.
Ø We are already children of God, but
we do not know how we will be in the life to come.
Ø But we know that we will be like
him.
Ø What John says is very interesting;
he says that we will be like Him because we will see him as he is.
Ø This hope makes us pure, pure as God
is pure, without sin.
GOSPEL Mt :1-12a.
Ø I copy here another way to formulate
the Beatitudes.
Ø They will help us to better
understand what Jesus wanted to tell us with this new Law of the Kingdom.
Blessed “the poor in spirit” those who know
how to live with few things, always trusting in God. Happy,
blessed the church with the soul of a poor, she will have less problems, she
will be attentive to the needy and will live the gospel with greater freedom. Hers
is the kingdom of God.
Blessed “the
long-suffering ones” those who live with benevolent and clement hearts.
Happy, blessed the church full of meekness. She will be a gift for the violent
world. She will inherit the promised
land.
Blessed “those who cry”, because they endure unjust sufferings and marginalization. With
them a new world better and more dignified can be created. Happy, blessed the church who suffers because she is
faithful to Jesus. She will be consoled
by God.
Blessed “those
who hunger and thirst for justice”
those who have not lost either the desire to be more just or the zeal to
make a worthier world. Happy, blessed the church who seeks with
passion the kingdom of God and its justice. In her the best of the human spirit
will be found. Her longing
will be satisfied.
Blessed “the merciful” who act, work and live moved by compassion. They
are on earth, those more like the Heavenly Father. Happy, blessed the church from whom God takes away the heart of stone and gives her a
heart of flesh. She will reach
mercy.
Blessed “the peacemakers” who with patience and faith, seek the good of
all. Happy, blessed the church which puts into the world peace and not dissent,
reconciliation and not confrontations. She will be called “daughter of God”
Blessed “the
persecuted for the sake of justice”, they respond with meekness to the
injustices and offenses. They help us to overcome evil with good. Happy, blessed the church persecuted because
she follows Jesus. Hers is the kingdom of God.
Ø Happy will we be if we enter through the way of Jesus, and we
learn from him to love the Father in
heaven above all and our brothers and sisters as Jesus loves them.
Ø This is the blessing, the beatitude, the recompense of all our brothers and sisters who have allowed the Lord to transform them with love.
1855, All Saints day while I was
in prayer, his divine majesty commanded me, to note down some points about the
manner He wanted to start the General reform
and told me what I had to write. I was fervently praying when the Lord
gave me the command and His Majesty had me as if I was very strongly tied, not
able to move, because I wanted to stop praying, since such great things, being
what I am frighten me.
… Then, the Lord told me to recollect and prostate myself with great humility and reverence since it seemed I was face to face with the Majesty of God. I felt as if He let loose all the ties with which he held me bounds as well as a great spiritual submission to obey and to write, which until then I never felt, rather a very great repugnance. María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Autobiography 51-52
Last Friday, October 24, we have celebrated the Feast
of St. Anthony Mary Claret. These are the
words that Pope Pius XII said to the Claretians in the audience of May 8,
1950 the day after the canonization of
Claret.
Great soul born
to embrace contrasts
Humble of
origin and glorious at the eyes of the world
Small in his
body, but with the spirit of a giant
Modest in his
appearance, but capable to impose respect even to the great men of the
world
Strong in
character, but with the kindness of the one who knows austerity and penance
Always in the
presence of God even in the midst of his extraordinary external activity
Slandered and
admired, celebrated and persecuted.
And in the
midst of so many wonders, like a gentle light which illumines everything, his
devotion to the Mother of God.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CLARET,
Antonio María. Autobiografía y Escritos complementarios, 2008.
EPISCOPAL
CONFERENCE OF SPAIN, Sagrada Biblia, official edition, 2012.
PARIS,
María Antonia. Autobiografía in Escritos. 1985.
SHOEKEL,
Luis Alonso, Comentarios en La Biblia de Nuestro Pueblo, 2010.
