USCCB Mass Readings for All Saints’ Day

One of the holiest days on our liturgical calendar is celebrated today, November 1st. We call it All Saints’ Day. It is a special day because generally, when we refer to saints, we generally speak of those who have been formally recognized by the Catholic Church to have lived lives of holiness with joy, died in the state of grace, and now live in happiness with our Lord.

Many saints who have lived hidden lives die in the state of grace and are not formally recognized by the Church—They are saints too. Today, on All Saints’ Day, is their day to be celebrated in the Church with all the formally recognized saints of the Catholic Church—The Church Triumphant.  The Church Triumphant offer their intercessions for us this day, the Church Militant, that we, too, may answer the call of holiness.  

How do we become saints? We seek and find happiness—God.

“If human beings are not made for God, why is it that they attain happiness only in God? If they are made for God why do they show themselves so averse to God?”[1] – Blaise Pascal

We find Jesus in our Gospel for All Saint’s Day, seated in authority on a mount as the New Moses. Our Lord from this mount does not give commandments ordered toward the moral good, as morality is secondary to God’s creative initiative.  Jesus instead affirms, “paradoxically the fundamental dignity of the human being in the person of the most disadvantaged, whom God defends in a preferential manner: the poor, the afflicted, the meek, the hungry, the persecuted. They are ‘sons of God’ (v. 9), heirs of the kingdom of God.”[2]

They have found true happiness—or rather felicity.

The Ancient Israelite Wisdom literature confirms the Church’s connection between becoming a Saint and finding happiness. The Wisdom literature is typically found in two forms: the saying and the admonition. The admonition can either be positive or negative.

Roland E. Murphy informs that the positive admonition found in the Wisdom tradition still finds itself in the New Testament. Murphy explains, “The “blessed” saying. This is the formula preserved in the New Testament beatitudes as “Blessed is the one [or, “Happy the one”] who…”[3]

So, how do we find our end? How do you find happiness? It’s simple. We need to know, love, and serve the Lord. The Saints show us through their lives, whether it be Thérèse of Lisieux or our neighbor down the street, through their humility how we can find this happiness.

And Jesus tells us today,

Happy are the poor in spirit,
        for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
   Happy are they who mourn,
        for they will be comforted.
    Happy are the meek,
        for they will inherit the land.
    Happy are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
        for they will be satisfied.
    Happy are the merciful,
        for they will be shown mercy.
    Happy are the clean of heart,
        for they will see God.
    Happy are the peacemakers,
        for they will be called children of God.
    Happy are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
        for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
    Happy 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.”

[1] Pontifical Biblical Commission, The Bible and Morality: Biblical Roots of Christian Conduct (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2008).

[2] Pontifical Biblical Commission, The Bible and Morality: Biblical Roots of Christian Conduct (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2008).

[3] Roland E. Murphy, The Tree of Life (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2002), 9.