SOLEMNITY OF ALL SAINTS, November 1

Today the Church celebrates...
THE SOLEMNITY OF ALL SAINTS

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Reading 1
From the Book of Revelation.

    I, John, saw an angel ascending from the east, holding the seal of the living God. He cried out in a loud voice to the four angels who were given power to damage the land and the sea, saying, "Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God." I heard the number of those who had been marked: 144,000 marked from every tribe of the Israelites.
    After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb."
    All the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell prostrate before the throne, worshiped God, and exclaimed: "Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, honor, power, and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen."
    Then one of the elders spoke up and said to me, "Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?" I said to him, "My lord, you are the one who knows."
He said to me, "These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."

The Word of the Lord.
R\ Thanks be to God

Reading 2
From the first letter of the Apostle Saint John.
    See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
    Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure.

The Word of the Lord.
R\ Thanks be to God

Gospel
From the holy Gospel according to Matthew.
    At that time, when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He began to teach them, saying:
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven."

The Gospel of the Lord.
R\Glory to you Lord Jesus Christ

✠ 

Reflection
My dear friends in Christ,
    This is one of the solemnities in The Church's liturgy that I am especially fond of .... the Solemnity of All Saints.
    Why? Because today is a day when we speak of holiness.
    Everyday holiness - holiness that everyday people actually attained. These weren't perfect people; they never even imagined themselves that way. Rather, we are celebrating what is called the "Church Triumphant" — all those people, whether officially canonized by the Church, or, those unsung believers who lived and died in the faith....and are now in their heavenly home.
    WIth that said, let us match that with a sad recognition: today is one of the very few days — when we speak of holiness.

    Huh? Why did I say it that way?
    Because so many of us are like the Pharisees, well... maybe, "good Pharisees," but too often focusing on everyone else following the rules...
    We make sure everyone stands, sits, kneels, raises their hands, closes them, places their hand a certain way, opens their mouth, or sticks out their tongue, "how it has to be done, when it has to be done, and who has to do it...." and so on.
    I sometimes call this being a, "Bible, or church lawyer." 
    And what do we watch for?
- We watch to see if someone slips up and how.
- We watch to see if a sister sins, and it becomes a scandal.
- We watch for what does not please the Lord, saying "God detests this."
- We watch to see if a brother is doing something wrong.
- We focus on the end of the world, thinking they are going to destroy all of this and cast us into the eternal flames of purgatory or hell.
- We look out for when a brother does something wrong and pounce on him....,
    BUT we may overlook focusing on whether we ourselves are already saints, or if we are in the process of reaching that kind of holiness.
     We are focused on everything but that, and in so doing we develop and immense Phariseeism within us.
    You will see it in any parish; the seeds of hypocritical Pharisees are sprouting and flourishing in every church. In families too—no one escapes. Every home, every church, every parish group is a place where the seed of hypocritical Phariseeism flourishes.

The Thing We Don't Focus On
    Rarely, though, are we focused on holiness - yet today we can change all that. A day of holiness.
    Today is the day when it should worry us that there are fewer saints in the Church than should be. I mean....
- We are having ever more retreats;
- We are growing in numbers;
- Our groups are growing;
- We are increasing our conferences and services...,
    Yet, we don't think to worry about whether our people of God are drawing closer to holiness. We aren't really thinking that way.
    In fact, we seem to be more worried about the enemy than about God.

Change Today
    Today, the is the day to change that. It is the day to examine our hearts and ask ourselves some question we may not be used to:
- How close to holiness do I find myself?
- What actions am I taking to purify my soul?
- What actions am I taking to fill myself with God?
- How am I being a witness of holiness to others?
    Let us look at our homes again. We are worried about our children not doing things, not touching things, not running, not talking, and obeying everything..., but we don't involve our thoughts with being God's witnesses on earth and fulfilling His will. Stepping back to ask if our names are written in the book of life in heaven is overshadowed by a hundred other things.

The Mirror
    How beautiful it would be if today each of you stopped for a second and forgot about everyone else. Forget about whether what your brother does is a sin. Forget about whether what he does is wrong. Forget about that.
    Instead, go look in the mirror and ask yourself:
- How am I living my spiritual life?
- How close to God am I?
- What changes have I made in my life to be on the path to holiness?
- What is worrying me? God or the devil?
- Of whom do I speak more?
- Whom do I hold in my heart?
- What do I talk about more?
- What do I say more?
- What do I live more?

Today is the Day
    Today is the day to cry out to the Church: "We need more saints!"
Oh sure, we love it when a new saint is announced, especially if they are young. But we don't rush to get in the line of holiness, ourselves.
Have you ever wondered why that is, why we don't we offer ourselves, or work for it like they did?

    Today is the day to reflect on that, the day to say: "With everything I have lived, everything I have proclaimed, all the work I have done, all the retreats I attend, and as much as I focus on the lives of others—how holy am I? How pure? How white are my robes?"

    We more than ebough 'church lawyers,' more than enough Pharisaism in the Church.
- We have evangelized people, and so many evangelizers.
- We have a zillion parish groups committed to the cause of the Gospel.
- We have crowds of people attending retreats, conferences, talks, preaching, and "inner healing seminars."
    But think about today - where is the concern for being saints? Where is the effort to reach holiness?
    Let me repeat: Today lets examine our conscience....
How close am I to holiness, and what am I doing to become a saint?
    In fact, let us look to the experts in this: the Saints themselves.
    Study them. Learn about them. Let them to help us understand what the path is, where the path leads, and how to walk it. Because the Church needs saints—not people who just speak the words, but people who live it with their own lives.
    We need fewer people watching out for the devil in others, to see that the rules are followed, and more people focused on casting out the devil we carry within ourselves. Let us find a few saints that inspire us, and focus less on everyone else following the rules. Study those saints and get familiar with people who lived so that everyone can see the face of God in us.
    Today is the day to focus on being saints, on holiness. Place that conversation in your mouth....and in your heart. And from this day forward, let us have one main concern: reaching holiness, imitating Jesus, being holy just as your heavenly Father is holy.
    Get that into your heads, and let us leave behind the gross Pharisaism that is kills and divides us.

Closing Prayer and Blessing
    "Lord, enlighten our Church and give us holy servants and priests. Enlighten our families and give us holy fathers, mothers, and children, so that we may all reach holiness as you desire.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end."
Amen.

May the Lord be with you.... Father Son and Holy Spirit descend upon you and accompany you always... Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

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This was derived from an OxiEspiritual tubecast by Father Robinson Gonzalez, St. Michael's Parish, Newark, NJ.
To see the original Spanish language tubecast, visit here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JuDD8yCIcI&t=9s 
AI was used to assist with translation and images.