Blessed are those whose confidence is in God

November 1, 2015

All Saints - Solemnity 

Readings

Book of Revelation 7:2-4; 9-14

2Then I saw another angel come up from the East,[1] 3holding the seal of the living God. He cried out in a loud voice to the four angels who were given power to damage the land and the sea, 3"Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God."

4I heard the number of those who had been marked with the seal, one hundred and forty-four thousand marked from every tribe of the Israelites. 

9After this I had a vision of 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.[2] 10They cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb."[3]

11All the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They prostrated themselves before the throne, worshiped God, 12 and exclaimed: "Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, honor, power, and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen."

13Then one of the elders spoke up and said to me, "Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?" 14I said to Him, "My lord, you are the one who knows." He said to me, "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.[4]

Psalms 24:1-6

IThe earth is the LORD’s and all it holds, the world and those who dwell in it. 2For He founded it on the seas, established it over the rivers.

3Who may go up the mountain of the LORD? Who can stand in His holy place?

4The clean of hand and pure of heart, who has not given His soul to useless things, what is vain. 

5He will receive blessings from the LORD, and justice from His saving God. 6Such is the generation that seeks Him, that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.”

First Letter of john 3:1-3

1See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.[5]

2Beloved, we are God's children now; 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.[6]

3Everyone who has this hope based on Him makes himself pure, as He is pure.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 5:1-12

1When He saw the crowds, He went up the mountain, and after He had sat down, His disciples came to Him.[7]

2He began to teach them, saying: 

3"Blessed [8]are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.[9]

4Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.[10]

5Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.[11]

6Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.[12]

7Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

8Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.[13]

9Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

10Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.[14]

11Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you (falsely) because of me.

12Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.[15][16]

  

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Notes on Readings

[1] Revelation 7:2 - East: literally, "rising of the sun." The east was considered the source of light and the place of paradise (Genesis 2:8). Seal: whatever was marked by the impression of one's signet ring belonged to that person and was under his protection.

[2] Revelation 7:9 - White robes . . . palm branches: symbols of joy and victory; see the footnote on Revelation 3:5.

[3] Revelation 7:10 - Salvation comes from: literally, "(let) salvation (be ascribed) to." A similar hymn of praise is found at the fall of the dragon (Revelation 12:10) and of Babylon (Revelation 19:1).

[4] Revelation 7:14 - Time of great distress: fierce persecution by the Romans; compare with Introduction..

[5] 1 John  3:1-3 - The greatest sign of God's love is the gift of his Son (John 3:16) that has made Christians true children of God. This relationship is a present reality and also part of the life to come; true knowledge of God will ultimately be gained, and Christians prepare themselves now by virtuous lives in imitation of the Son.

[6] 1 John  3:2 - When it is revealed: or "when he is revealed" (the subject of the verb could be Christ).

[7] Matthew 5:1-29 - The first of the five discourses that are a central part of the structure of this gospel. It is the discourse section of the first book and contains sayings of Jesus derived from Q and from M. The Lucan parallel is in that gospel's "Sermon on the Plain" (Luke 6:20-49), although some of the sayings in Matthew's "Sermon on the Mount" have their parallels in other parts of Luke. The careful topical arrangement of the sermon is probably not due only to Matthew's editing; he seems to have had a structured discourse of Jesus as one of his sources. The form of that source may have been as follows: four beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-4, 6, 11-12) , a section on the new righteousness with illustrations (Matthew 5:17; 20-24; 27-28; 33-48), a section on good works (Matthew 6:1-6; 16-18), and three warnings (Matthew 7:1-2; 15-21; 24-27).

[8] Matthew 5:3 - The poor in spirit: in the Old Testament, the poor (anawim) are those who are without material possessions and whose confidence is in God (see Isaiah 61:1; Zephaniah 2:3; in the New American Bible the word is translated lowly and humble, respectively, in those texts). Matthew added in spirit in order either to indicate that only the devout poor were meant or to extend the beatitude to all, of whatever social rank, who recognized their complete dependence on God. The same phrase poor in spirit is found in the Qumran Literature (1QM 14:7).

[9] Matthew 5:1-2 - Unlike Luke's sermon, this is addressed not only to the disciples but to the crowds (Matthew 7:28) .

[10] Matthew 5:4 - Compare with Isaiah 61:2 "(The Lord has sent me) . . . to comfort all who mourn." They will be comforted: here the passive is a "theological passive" equivalent to the active "God will comfort them"; so also in Matthew 5:6, 7. 

[11] Matthew 5:5 - Compare with Psalm 37:11 ,". . . the meek shall possess the land." In the psalm "the land" means the land of Palestine; here it means the kingdom.

[12] Matthew 5:6 - For righteousness: a Matthean addition. For the meaning of righteousness here, see the note on Matthew 3:14-15).

[13] Matthew 5:8 - Compare with Psalm 24:4. Only one "whose heart is clean" can take part in the temple worship. To be with God in the temple is described in Psalm 42:2 as "beholding his face," but here the promise to the clean of heart is that they will see God not in the temple but in the coming kingdom.

[14] Matthew 5:10 - Righteousness here, as usually in Matthew, means conduct in conformity with God's will.

[15] Matthew 5:3-12 - The form Blessed are (is) occurs frequently in the Old Testament in the Wisdom literature and in the psalms. Although modified by Matthew, the first, second, fourth, and ninth beatitudes have Lucan parallels (Matthew 5:3; Luke 6:20; Matthew 5:4 ; Luke 6:21, 22t; Matthew 5:6; Luke 6:21a ; Matthew 5:11-12 ; Luke 5:22-23). The others were added by the evangelist and are probably his own composition. A few manuscripts, Western and Alexandrian, and many versions and patristic quotations give the second and third beatitudes in inverted order.

[16] Matthew 5:12 - The prophets who were before you: the disciples of Jesus stand in the line of the persecuted prophets of Israel. Some would see the expression as indicating also that Matthew considered all Christian disciples as prophets.