9781644135945

The Time After Pentecost
sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, . . . and
they fell down before the throne upon their faces, and adored God saying: Amen. Benediction,
and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, honor, and power, and strength to our God forever
and ever. Amen” (Epistle). O blessed creatures! They have all been saved and now praise God.
Indeed, “there is no want to them that fear Him. They that seek the Lord shall not be deprived
of any good” (Gradual). They now possess God and, in God, the plenitude of all good things.
In God they are eternally blessed. “Come to Me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I will
refresh you” (Alleluia verse). We rejoice with our brethren who have been saved, and congratulate
them on having achieved the end of their existence.
We, too, are destined for heaven. The way that led them to salvation and to blessedness is
the way explained in the Sermon on the Mount and in today’s Gospel, which relates the eight
beatitudes. “The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away” (Mt 11:12).
“If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me”
(Mt 16:24). Anyone who thinks he can reach heaven without exerting himself, without daily
mortification, without subduing his will, is deceiving himself. Heaven is made up of those who
are “poor in spirit,” that is, those who have detached themselves from all that is not God. It is
the meek, and those who suffer injury and injustice without resentment, and those who return
love for hatred and repay evil with good, who attain to the kingdom of heaven. Heaven is for
those who resist the allurements of pleasure and of the world, and who find their joy in God.
Heaven is for those who thirst after justice and who strive to be holy. It is the merciful, and those
who show compassion for the corporal and spiritual misery of their fellow men for the love of
Christ, who will be blessed in the world to come. The joys of the blessed are promised to those
who are pure of heart and who fly from the least imperfection and fault. Heaven is the reward
of the peacemakers, who strive always to please God, and who preserve equanimity of spirit
in spite of provocation and the promptings of their own passions. Blessed, too, are those who
suffer persecution for the sake of Christ, and who are reviled and despised because of Him. The
promises of the Sermon on the Mount are guaranteed to all of these, and to them it is said: “Be
glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven” (Gospel).
“These are they who are come out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and have
made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God. . . .
They shall no more hunger nor thirst. . . . For the Lamb . . . shall rule them and shall lead them
to the fountains of the waters of life; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (Apoc
7:14–17). “And they shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. . . . The Lord
God shall enlighten them, and they shall reign forever and ever” (Apoc 22:4 f.). Truly, “The
souls of the just are in the hand of God, and the torment of malice shall not touch them; in
the sight of the unwise they seemed to die [here on earth], but they are in peace [in heaven].
Alleluia” (Offertory). How wonderful is the Christian life!
The feast of All Saints is a feast which celebrates the triumph of grace over nature. It is an
apology for the effectiveness of the Church and her work; it is the triumph of her doctrine,
her teachings, her sacraments, her priesthood, and particularly her Holy Sacrifice. Through
the power of the Eucharistic sacrifice and Holy Communion, the Church has turned sinners
into saints. Through the Holy Eucharist our brethren in Christ, although weak and sinful by
nature, have walked the way of the eight beatitudes, and have thus sanctified themselves. We,
703