Solemnity of All Saints

November 1, 2025

Revelation 7:3-4 & 9-14; Responsorial Psalm 24; 1st Letter of John 3:1-3;
Gospel Acclamation Matthew 11:28; Matthew 5:1-12

The book of Revelation talks about 144,000 people from each of the twelve tribes of Israel sealed with the seal of God. These are those saved from the horrific destruction about to be rendered. Those sealed were God’s chosen. Is 144,000 the number of those chosen? Is that all there is for the thousands of years of those chosen people’s existence? What about all the rest the people in the world? The reading goes on saying there is a great multitude from every nation, race, people and tongue. These numbers are not limiting but expansively symbolic. The 144 number comes by multiplying 12 (as in twelve tribes) by 12 (as in the number of apostles). Multiplying that by 1000 provides a huge number. Billions will be saved, sealed with God’s seal. Imagine a huge valley populated with people from every age for the millions of years of human existence. We currently have an earthly count of humanity in excess of eight billion. How many billions have lived before now? How many billions will live after we’ve gone? No one can count or limit the number of persons that have salvation in the Lord’s name. If any one preaches that God’s salvation is limited, they should study the Book of Revelation to correct their misunderstanding. Also the Letter to the Hebrews speaks of a vast cloud of the faithful. There is no limitation set for the number gaining entrance in the never-ending Kingdom of Heaven. All are welcome!

The second reading from John’s first letter reveals the Father adopted us as children of God. The children of the world don’t recognize us as God’s children. How can a person recognize whose child you are if they don’t recognize our Father? Those impoverished persons do not recognize Jesus present in nature, in the Assembly, the Church, in civil society. Each person is called to God’s adoption. Not all recognize that call. John speaks of our inheritance as God’s children. What we shall be has not yet been revealed. We shall be like Jesus, the risen one. How fitting we contemplate about our adoption on this great feast of All Saints.

The gospel reading from Matthew doesn’t seem to fit this celebration of the children of God. In Matthew’s gospel, the Beatitudes are gifted to disciples on a mountain top. In Luke’s gospel, the Beatitudes are proclaimed to a crowd of people on a level plain. Matthew’s perspective is to compare Jesus’ giving of the Beatitudes to the disciples to God giving the Commandments to the Israelites at Mount Sinai. The significant difference is that God gives the Commandments to Moses who then gives them to the Israelites through the Elders. In Matthew, Jesus gives the new commandment, the beatitudes, directly to disciples. These disciples are those who are already attracted to Jesus by his preaching, his curing, and his life. The beatitudes are the new law that ratchets up the old law to more a matter of the heart than the will. It is how people called to adoption become saints. Is it possible for us to be poor in spirit? Can we mourn for the condition of the world and its peoples? Who among us practices meekness? Who will be consumed with hunger and thirst for right relationships with the world and with its people, with God? Who can be merciful to those who practice evil on their persons and loved ones? Who can keep hearts clean of selfishness and taking advantage of others? Who, in a world filled with violence and hatred, can bring about peace? Who among us berated, criticized, and made sport of, retain a right relationship with those who harm them? How can we have the strength to rejoice and be glad when false witnesses lie and imprison us? Yet those who reside in the Kingdom of Heaven are such as these. May our lives embrace these new commandments from the Son of God.