THE INCONCEIVABLE JOY OF THE SAINTS

SOLEMNITY OF ALL SAINTS

Apoc 7:2-4,0-14; Ps 24:1-6; 1 Jn 3:1-3; Mt 5:1-12

The Joy and Happiness of the Blessed

The Church celebrates the solemn feast of all the saints on the first day of November every year. It is an opportunity for the Church to celebrate all her children who have made their way to the heavenly hall to dwell with God forever. The idea of a multitude does not easily lend itself to our understanding of enjoyment and happiness, for in our mortal, physical life, multitude usually means a lack of space or room and other inconveniences we suffer in such gatherings. Our material life and understanding of things hinder our true grasp of the inconceivable multitude of the blessed standing before God. But familiarity with spiritual things reveals that the idea of number here poses no problem or hindrance because each saint has been perfected in the love of God. So each is a holy spirit relating directly to God and possessing him as if he is the only one made to enjoy God through Jesus Christ. Each blessed will enter into God so that God will fill and overwhelm him with divine goodness. The image of the multitude mainly depicts our communion with the Trinitarian God and with one another. The personalisation of God we have commenced here on earth will be perfected in heaven.

The personalisation we speak of is God’s giving of himself to each of us in the interiority of our spirits. As we have often explained, the Christian journey is interior and concerns our spirits. It is a journey into the mystery of Jesus Christ or transformation into him. Our transformation is by the continuous process of purgation, illumination, and union. It is God the Father’s continuous entrance into our spirits and our entrance into God. The multitude before God depicts the huge number of blessed souls enjoying God as their personal inheritance. “After that I saw a huge number, impossible to count, of people from every nation, race, tribe and language; they were standing in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palms in their hands.” The communion of the saints does not rest on standing together, but on what they share in common. Though each saint possesses God as a personal inheritance through Jesus Christ, they also understand the commonwealth, which God is for them in Christ. Sharing the same Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ, they inherit the Sonship of Jesus Christ, personally and collectively, and rejoice in the fatherhood of God the Father. This describes their participation in the Trinitarian communion begun here on earth.

They rejoice exceedingly because God is now their own. God’s victory is their victory, and their victory in Jesus Christ is God’s. “They shouted aloud, ‘Victory to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” Each saint’s personal victory flows from that of Jesus Christ, who won the victory for us in principle through his life, death, and resurrection. We own the victory by abandoning our own lives for his own. By receiving Jesus Christ and making his life our own, we are called children of God. “Think of the love that the Father has lavished on us, by letting us be called God’s children; and that is what we are. Because the world refused to acknowledge him, therefore it does not acknowledge us.” Our choice of Jesus Christ is our death to the world that does not believe in him. Because the world does not believe, it does not see him. But our life and journey are spiritual; we believe and see him daily in the Sacrament of the altar, in the Scriptures, personally, and spiritually within us. All these means work together to transform us into him.

Most importantly, we walk with the indwelling Holy Spirit. His presence and activities within us confirm that we are God’s children.  “My dear people, we are already the children of God, but what we are to be in the future has not yet been revealed; all we know is, that when it is revealed, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he really is.” Empowered by the Holy Spirit, who makes Christ present to us in spirit, we fight the good fight of faith. We die to ourselves in true humility; we imitate Christ’s meekness and gentleness; we mourn for sinners and pray for their conversion daily; we long for holiness of life; we extend the divine mercy we received to those who offend us; we work for peace among men; and endure wrongs and calumnies from the world for the love of Christ. These characterise the life of Jesus Christ on earth. His Spirit guides us into its depths as we prayerfully follow Christ in faith. He is the way, the truth, and the life of the blessed. The psalmist describes this path as leading up the Saviour’s mountain. “Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord? Who shall stand in his holy place? The man with clean hands and pure heart, who desires not worthless things. He shall receive blessings from the Lord and reward from the God who saves him.” Let us seek these blessings from heaven with the saints, which Jesus Christ has made available for us.

Let us pray: Almighty ever-living God, by whose gift we venerate in one celebration the merits of 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, God, for ever and ever.