My Holy Dad

Solemnity of All the Saints
01 November 2009



Come, let us worship Christ, whose bride is the Church.

First reading Apocalypse 7:2-4,9-14

I, John, saw another angel rising where the sun rises, carrying the seal of the living God; he called in a powerful voice to the four angels whose duty was to devastate land and sea, ‘Wait before you do any damage on land or at sea or to the trees, until we have put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.’ Then I heard how many were sealed: a hundred and forty-four thousand, out of all the tribes of Israel.

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. They shouted aloud, ‘Victory to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’ And all the angels who were standing in a circle round the throne, surrounding the elders and the four animals, prostrated themselves before the throne, and touched the ground with their foreheads, worshipping God with these words, ‘Amen. Praise and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and strength to our God for ever and ever. Amen.’

One of the elders then spoke, and asked me, ‘Do you know who these people are, dressed in white robes, and where they have come from?’ I answered him, ‘You can tell me, my lord.’ Then he said, ‘These are the people who have been through the great persecution, and they have washed their robes white again in the blood of the Lamb.’

Psalm or canticle: Psalm 23:1-6

Second reading 1 John 3:1-3

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.
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.
Surely everyone who entertains this hope
must purify himself, must try to be as pure as Christ.

Gospel Matthew 5:1-12

Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up the hill. There he sat down and was joined by his disciples. Then he began to speak. This is what he taught them:
‘How happy are the poor in spirit;
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Happy the gentle:
they shall have the earth for their heritage.
Happy those who mourn:
they shall be comforted.
Happy those who hunger and thirst for what is right:
they shall be satisfied.
Happy the merciful:
they shall have mercy shown them.
Happy the pure in heart:
they shall see God.
Happy the peacemakers:
they shall be called sons of God.
Happy those who are persecuted in the cause of right:
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Happy are you when people abuse you and persecute you
and speak all kinds of calumny against you on my account.
Rejoice and be glad,
for your reward will be great in heaven.’

Reflection
By Mayzelle Atienza

Perhaps the most poignant suggestion of heaven and eternal perspective can be found in the Beatitudes – it is a promise of better things to come, a promise of reward in exchange of sufferings bore here on earth by our temporal bodies.

I’ve always liked the Beatitudes, maybe because of how it was written -- I like it for the seeming dramatic irony and being part of the telenovela generation, I like how it paints poetic justice – how one suffered and eventually becomes victorious at the end! But the ‘end’ painted here is not literally ‘here’ – it can be – but it points to more lasting than the here and now, it points to a more enduring and eternal goal of heaven.

As Christians, we are taught to look at the eternal perspective, to search for meanings in light of an eternal heaven and an eternal God. I am currently serving as a full-time staffer for my Catholic community; I had to forego several lucrative job offers in other countries because I wanted to serve God full-time first. There are times that I regret my decision and I doubt the wisdom why I’m doing what I’m doing but I am always reminded and grounded of the eternal perspective and I am fired up in serving once again. What we do and the decisions we made for God may seem pointless, trivial and even downright stupid at times, but we always need to look at it in the light of an eternal God.

By Pietro S. Albano

We are such a lucky people because God loves us 24/7! And because of that love He adopted us as His own. These first two days of November – All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day - I believe are intertwined in the sense that, heaven is for real and is the reward that awaits all who would remain in God’s love. And those who enter heaven are called saints. Why? Because they now share in that perfection which God has called each of His children. Imagine when we all gain eternal life, we would be seeing God face-to-face in that future not yet revealed as indicated in St John’s Letter (Second Reading) and sitting side-by-side with the Blessed Virgin, St Joseph, and our other favourite saints. And not just those saints canonized in the Church, but others who spent their lives on earth doing God’s will – it could be a grandparent, parent, friend, or just any ordinary person you may have met or heard of.

All Souls’ Day is connected to All Saints’ Day because we have that virtue called hope. When we pray for the dead we have that hope that in God’s own time they will share in the eternal happiness proclaimed and promised by Jesus Himself in today’s Gospel. We remember the dead full of hope that they will be in that state when there will no longer be any problems or heartaches, only peace in the presence of our Savior.

We are all called to be in heaven in the future. I must admit that at times I feel so unworthy of it because of my sins, yet I never lose hope that the Lord would have pity on me, always giving me the nth chance to mend my foolish ways, and allow me to join the rest of His big family in heaven soon. I have that hope so I could always strive to be holy just as my Dad and yours (i.e. God) is holy.




Prayer

Lord, May we always look beyond the temporal and focus on what’s eternal. May we always look at our lives here on earth in the light of eternity and be always reminded of the promise of better things to come once we’re home with you in heaven. Amen.

May the souls of the faithful departed through Your mercy, Lord, rest in peace. Amen.

Next week on God-speak
Giving-All-I-Have