The name of the Solemnity we hold today: All Saints, reveals us something of our God: He is hardworking. He has been working so hard on women and men over centuries that the Church has had to say: it is impossible to name all people who have become saints. It is an echo of what Saint John the Apostle saw in his vision: “A huge number, impossible to count, of people from every nation, race, tribe and language.”
My Dear Sisters and Brothers! At the beginning of the Gospel passage for this celebration Saint Matthew wrote that: “Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up the hill.” Then looking at those crowds “he began to speak. He taught them.” However let’s remember that he wasn’t an ordinary teacher. He was God incarnated. When God speaks he creates by his word, like in the book of Genesis, where we read of God creating the Universe. That same book of Genesis tells us also that on the seventh day God rested. However let’s treasure the belief that He didn’t retire after that seventh day. After creating the wonders of the Universe, He has been kept busy by some stubborn creatures: us, human beings, who have done “miracles” to spoil the grandeur God has envisaged in us. The whole of the salvation history, which has been recorded in the Holy Scriptures, tells the story of the hardworking God who can’t sit still at the finish but is involved along the journey of men and women of all ages. The saints, whom we honour today, are in fact proving that. They are not heroes to be admired, though some of them were heroes even at the young age, but they are our friends who through their example and intercessions arouse in us trust in God. Without that trust God is kept at distance but when we trust him there is a loving relationship established. This loving relationship becomes the space where holiness flourishes. How often we say of the parents when they welcome a newborn baby that they bloom with this newcomer. How often we say when a man falls in love with a woman that they are in bloom. It happens when they give and receive each other. God has given himself to us: “Take this all of you and eat of it, for this is my Body… Take this, all of you and drink from it, for this is the chalice of my Blood….” He hasn’t done this one but He has been doing it all the time because every week, and in fact every day, needs to be a repeated commitment to this loving relationship.
Although we don’t need to face “the great persecution” of which we heard in the first reading but every day and all life circumstances are our opportunities to let God work on us. The All Saints whom we honour today didn’t become saints in heaven. On the contrary they became saints on this planet where God is still at work. He indeed is hardworking God.
My Dear Sisters and Brothers! At the beginning of the Gospel passage for this celebration Saint Matthew wrote that: “Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up the hill.” Then looking at those crowds “he began to speak. He taught them.” However let’s remember that he wasn’t an ordinary teacher. He was God incarnated. When God speaks he creates by his word, like in the book of Genesis, where we read of God creating the Universe. That same book of Genesis tells us also that on the seventh day God rested. However let’s treasure the belief that He didn’t retire after that seventh day. After creating the wonders of the Universe, He has been kept busy by some stubborn creatures: us, human beings, who have done “miracles” to spoil the grandeur God has envisaged in us. The whole of the salvation history, which has been recorded in the Holy Scriptures, tells the story of the hardworking God who can’t sit still at the finish but is involved along the journey of men and women of all ages. The saints, whom we honour today, are in fact proving that. They are not heroes to be admired, though some of them were heroes even at the young age, but they are our friends who through their example and intercessions arouse in us trust in God. Without that trust God is kept at distance but when we trust him there is a loving relationship established. This loving relationship becomes the space where holiness flourishes. How often we say of the parents when they welcome a newborn baby that they bloom with this newcomer. How often we say when a man falls in love with a woman that they are in bloom. It happens when they give and receive each other. God has given himself to us: “Take this all of you and eat of it, for this is my Body… Take this, all of you and drink from it, for this is the chalice of my Blood….” He hasn’t done this one but He has been doing it all the time because every week, and in fact every day, needs to be a repeated commitment to this loving relationship.
Although we don’t need to face “the great persecution” of which we heard in the first reading but every day and all life circumstances are our opportunities to let God work on us. The All Saints whom we honour today didn’t become saints in heaven. On the contrary they became saints on this planet where God is still at work. He indeed is hardworking God.
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