Living in Christ
(Matthew 5:1-12)
The Feast of All Saints has its origins in a 4th century feast of “All Martyrs”. In the 7th century, by which time the era of martyrdom had largely passed, it became “All Saints”.
The Gospel is the Beatitudes from St Matthew’s Gospel. This traditional description of Christian living blesses those who live according to the great Christian virtues of humility, justice, righteousness, forgiveness, mercy and peace. This is the way into God’s eternal life and into eternal life with God.
Matthew has transformed a short messianic manifesto into a program for life – a list of virtues which belong to those called into the Kingdom. This is how people of the Kingdom live; these are the qualities which mark their lives.
The text is chosen for the Feast of All Saints for just that reason. We recognise in it the kind of life to which we are called. We recognise saints as those people who lived by these qualities – whether or not they are formally canonised.
The Feast of All Saints celebrates all those ‘saints’ who have entered fully into the Kingdom.
Its partner feast is the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed (All Souls) the next day. Note: these people are the FAITHFUL departed (not the Unfaithful departed!) This commemoration tries to answer the questions, “What about those who were not perfect in their following of Christ”, who may have tried but not always succeeded like the saints and about whose fate we might be less certain.
This Gospel is often used at funerals. Many people think this is because of the reference to ‘those who mourn’. But that is not why the Church lists it as appropriate for funerals. Funerals are about celebrating the life of those who lived according to the Gospel. That is what this Gospel is all about.
