All Saints – Homily

All Saints
Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14
Psalm 24:1bc-2, 3-4ab, 5-6
1 John 3:1-3
Matthew 5:1-12a
November 1, 2024

How many saints do you know by name?  St. Francis of Assisi, St. Benedict, St. Joseph, St, Ignatius, St. Bonaventure…the list could go on and on.  Every saint known by name has a feast day associated with them.

What about the rest of them?

By them, I mean the rest of the saints.  The saints we know by name have undergone some process to be recognized as saints.  However, they are not the only ones who are saints.

How many saints are there?

The Book of Revelation speaks of the 144,000.  At first glance, 144,000 might seem like a lot but given that there are more than 8 billion people living in the world today, if there are only 144,000 saints, it won’t give us very good odds of becoming a saint.

Some people might not be surprised by these odds.  They think most people aren’t holy enough to be saints.  We are not holy enough on our own to be saints. 

However, you shouldn’t think that you will never be a saint.  In eternity, if you don’t become a saint, then you end up in Hell.  Why?  Because everyone who is in Heaven is a saint, formally canonized or not.

So, instead of 144,000, I think we need to look a verse or two later to where it speaks of the “vision of a great multitude, which no one could count.” 

Who can be a saint?

People of “every nation, race, people, and tongue” can become a saint and stand “before the throne and before the lamb.”

Revelation speaks of those “wearing white robes.”  The color white symbolizes purity.  How do we become pure when we know we have sinned? 

We don’t make ourselves pure.  Scripture says, “they have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb.” 

We wash our robes by handing ourselves and our sins over to Jesus.  Jesus is the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. 

We can’t do it ourselves.  We cannot “ascend the mountain of the LORD” on our own.  We don’t have to.  Jesus willingly sacrifices himself, shedding his own blood for us on the Cross so that we “may stand in his holy place.”

This doesn’t we can slack off and not worry about our sins.  We have to try our best.  Jesus says not everyone will be strong enough to enter through the gate.

Trying means doing our best to keep the commandments.  It means living in accord with the Beatitudes that we just heard. 

Trying demonstrates our “hunger and thirst for righteousness.”  Handing our sins over to Jesus allows him to make us “clean of heart.”  When we realize we can’t save ourselves and hand our lives over to Jesus, we show ourselves as “poor in spirit.” 

There I will end with the first Beatitude given by Jesus, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”