All Saints - Solemnity
† Wednesday 1st November 2000
[ Holiday of Obligation in England & Wales ]

Theme: : To be holy is truly to be happy.

A reading from the book of Revelation 7 : 2 - 4, 9 - 14
This book was probably written at the time of the persecution of the Christians under the Roman Emperor Domitian. With its almost unique language and style interpretation is not easy. But here with the opening of the seventh seal, there is depicted the triumph of the Christian who bears the “seal of the living God.” The text describes the triumph of the great multitude of the Saints of God, their very closeness to God, and finally describes the stuff of which such men and women of God are made.

First Letter of St John 3 : 1 - 3
Because of the love, God has lavished upon us, we are rightly called “children of God.” What we understand and know now, through faith, will one day be revealed, for “we shall be like him because we shall see the Father as he really is.”

Gospel according to Matthew 5 : 1 - 12
The gospel begins with a cry of joy because the Kingdom of God is near. What may have been the themes of Jesus’ teaching to the crowds, is recorded by Matthew as a practical programme for life, a series of ‘whats to do’ for the disciple who wishes to follow Jesus, and to shape the future Kingdom of God. This is the stuff of which saints are made. Do these things, behave in these ways, then, “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.”

© Peter Harrison 2000