Mass Readings: Sunday - 01st November 2020

FIRST READING
A reading from the book of the Apocalypse 7:2-4. 9-14
I saw a huge number, impossible to count, of people of every
nation, race, tribe and language.

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 because they have washed their robes white
again in the blood of the Lamb.

The Word of the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm  Ps 23

Response:  Such are the men who seek your face, O Lord

1. The Lord’s is the earth and its fullness,
the world and all its peoples.
It is he who set it on the seas;
on the waters he made it firm.

2. Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord?
Who shall stand in his holy place?
The man with clean hands and pure heart,
who desires not worthless things.

3. He shall receive blessings from the Lord
and reward from the God who saves him.
Such are the men who seek him,
seek the face of the God of Jacob.

SECOND READING
A reading from the first letter of John 3:1-3
We shall see God as he really is.

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.

The Word of the Lord.

Gospel Acclamation   Mt 11: 28

Alleluia, Alleluia!
Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened,
and I will give you rest, says the Lord.
Alleluia

GOSPEL
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew   5:1-12
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.

‘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; this is how
they persecuted the prophets before you.’

The Gospel of the Lord.

Mass Reflection: Sunday, 01st November 2020

RV 7:2-4, 9-14; PS 24:1B-4B, 5-6; 1 JN 3:1-3; MT 5:1-12A

On this Feast of All Saints, we have the profound joy of celebrating our big brothers and sisters in Christ: the saints! This is an especially meaningful feast for us as Christian stewards. 

Saints inspire us and lead us to Christ by their example of heroic virtue. Sainthood is meant for all of us — not just the canonized, and not only the martyrs and missionaries. At our Baptism, we all receive the call to holiness and discipleship — in other words, the call to sainthood. If we wish to go to Heaven, we must strive to become saints! Thankfully, through the stewardship way of life, we can each discover our unique path to do just that.

Our First Reading, from Revelation, describes the glory of the saints in Heaven: “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” all praising and worshiping God as one. This is our future if we are faithful to the call of Christ! But their journey to that place of joy and triumph was hard-fought. “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.” We should not expect the road to sainthood to be easy.

In today's Second Reading, from 1 John, we are given good encouragement for the journey: “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are.” And as glorious as that truth is — our present status as children of God — we are reminded that the best (Heaven) is yet to come. “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.” Glory beyond all we can imagine awaits us! The arduous journey to Heaven will be worth every difficulty.

In our Gospel passage from Matthew, the well-known Sermon on the Mount, Jesus reveals His Beatitudes. In them, our Lord lays out the characteristics that mark His disciples, His saints-in-the-making. As we examine, tweak, and update our individual and parish commitments to the steward-ship way of life, we must always keep these Beatitudes in mind as a measure of our progress to-wards saintliness. 

The “blessed” that our Lord speaks of are not nine different types of good people who get to go to Heaven. Rather, the “blessed” are nine characteristics of the disciples of Christ, living in their communities — whether at home or in school, in parish life, etc.

These characteristics — poor in spirit, mourners, meek, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, merciful, clean of heart, peacemakers, persecuted for the sake of righteousness, and insulted — are exactly the opposite of the common wisdom which urges us to focus on self and getting ahead. They can only be obtained with an abundance of grace. But we are children of God as we have been reminded, and so we have access to the infinite treasury of God’s grace. 

Armed with that grace and the stewardship way of life, we can have firm hope that one day we will join our big brothers and sisters in the never-ending joys and celebration of Heaven. 

Happy Feast Day to all the saints and saints-in-the-making!