Homily by Dom Caedmon Holmes, O.S.B. for All Saints Day, 2006, to the Portsmouth Abbey School community
 
"Today the Church celebrates the fulfillment of...its ...hope, in those men and women known and unknown, who, whenever and wherever they lived and whatever the circumstances of their lives, are now 'with God.'" (Butler's Lives of the Saints, new full edition, under November 1).
 
So we celebrate by coming to Mass.  And later, Mr. Cicerone, the kitchen manager, assures me, we will have something particularly good to eat.
 
The saints who are known are listed in a book called the Roman Martyrology, where they are arranged under the day of the year when they can be individually honored in church. I estimate that there are about seven thousand names in that book.  (Not mentioned there, would be also many others who are honored in the Greek and Egyptian and Syrian and other orthodox churches.) So the number of known saints is already very large.  
 
In the first reading, from the Book of Revelation, St John says that he saw in his vision of Heaven "a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue,...standing before God's throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches (the sign of victory) in their hands."  That text suggests that salvation, which can only come with holiness, or saintliness, or sanctity, is open to all; and indeed a huge number will be saved.
 
In the responsorial psalm the question is asked, "Who can ascend the mountain of the Lord?  Or who may stand in His holy place?"  And the answer comes: "One whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean, who desires not what is vain,"( that is, what is in the long run worthless).
 
In the second reading, from the First Letter of St John, addressed to a young Christian community, it says that God has loved us Christians so much "that we may be called the children of God, and that is what we really are. The world does not know us, because it did not know Christ."  So this implies that, while salvation is open to all, not all are accepting it at the present time, and some are even opposing it. That they are called "the world" suggests that they are, for the time being anyway, in the majority.
 
John goes on to say that "Everyone who hopes in him, purifies himself as he is pure," that is, as God, or Jesus, is pure.  So, even if we are among the children of God, we have work to do: purification is needed, and purification is possible.
 
In the alleluia verse just before the Gospel, Jesus says, "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest." These words almost imply that if you want Jesus to give you rest, you need to labor and be burdened.  At any rate, laboring and being burdened certainly puts you in a very good position to receive relief and rest from Him, if you just come to Him.
 
Then comes the Gospel we have just heard, from St Matthew.  Jesus is at the beginning of His public life, and He delivers His first extended teaching, in what is called The Sermon on the Mount.  He opens it with a series of eight beatitudes, that is, congratulations, or declarations that someone is in a good way, a blessed way. (Beati is the Latin word here translated "blessed".  "Blessed" means "happy" or "fortunate".  So this list is an answer to our inner question, How can I find happiness? "Blessed" is a better translation than "happy", I think, because the Latin word it translates--- beatus, beata, beatu--- is a perfect passive participle, intimating that the happiness has been bestowed by someone else---the someone else being God: He has given the happiness as a blessing which one receives, rather than achieves.)
 
What is surprising and discomfort-producing in Jesus' list of the Beatitudes is that He calls blessed those who are poor, who mourn, the meek, those hungry and thirsty for righteousness, the merciful, the clean of heart, peacemakers, and the insulted and persecuted. For "poor" we would have thought "well off" would be better.  For "those who mourn" we would have said "the contented".  Instead of "the meek", "the capable, those who get things done". For "those who hunger and thirst for righteousness" (meaning those who could only be satisfied by the goodness that comes from God, who want so intensely to be right with Him that they can fairly taste it") we might have preferred "those who want to make a difference". For "the merciful" we might have substituted "the self-confident, those with plenty of self-esteem". For "the clean of heart", "the responsible, those who use protection":  "Blessed are those who practice safe sex." Instead of "the peacemakers" our beatitudes might rather include "the achievers".  And for "the insulted and persecuted" I would have liked better "the honored, the prize-winners": "Blessed are the trophy-winners and the celebrities: responsible, concerned, politically-conscious, environmentally-aware celebrities and prize-winners." Whereas Christ says, "Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness."
 
Come to think of it: "poor, mourning, meek, hungry for goodness, merciful, clean of heart, peacemaking, insulted and persecuted" sounds like a good description of Jesus Himself, doesn't it? Furthermore, what good news this actually is for the poor, for mourners, for the meek, those who are hungering for goodness, the insulted and the persecuted!  Jesus does not ask us to do what He has not done Himself---and makes His saints able to do. So there is hope for us. And who would not want the reward of being comforted, of inheriting the land (which means, I think, possessing control over one's impulses and desires)?  Who would not want to be filled with goodness in God's sight, and to be shown mercy?  Who would not want to see God, to be called God's own child, and to have the Kingdom of Heaven?
 
What He offers corresponds to our deepest desires. The fact that the program for reaching the fulfillment of these deepmost desires, as laid out in the Eight Beatitudes, not only does not appeal to us, but actually disconcerts, scares, and puts us off is, in a strange way, confirmation that it is really God who is speaking---He, after all, is infinitely beyond us, and is calling us to leave our pettiness and our self-centeredness, our pitiful security blankets, is calling us to be like Him, to live His way, to be friends with Him.  
 
Then too, is there anyone here who does not know something of inner poverty, grief at loss, spiritual hunger, and the fear of what others could do to us?  And don't we all admire inner goodness and purity and strength and generosity when we encounter it in someone else?  And don't we hanker after it when we see it?
 
Maybe the Beatitudes are not so scary and off-putting, after all.  But even if we think they are, let us ask God that we may be helped by the example and prayers for us of the saints whom we honor and invoke especially today, that we may ever be more drawn to follow the one who knows that we labor and are burdened, and wishes to give us rest, to share with us His own rest.