BE HUMAN! BE HOLY!!

⏰THE SOLEMNITY OF ALL SAINTS (01 November 2020)

📖Rev 7:2-4, 9-14; Psalm 24:1-2, 3-4ab, 5-6 (R.v.6a); 1 John 3:1-3; Matt 5:1-12a

🎤BE HUMAN! BE HOLY!!

Back in our seminary days, this is a day to remember and anticipate, not just for the beautiful Latin chants but also for the beautiful liturgy that reminds us what we are called to do, “You must be holy because I, the LORD, am holy” (Lev 20:26).

There is that prayerful hymn that we normally took:

“O when the saints, go marching in (2x); O Lord I want to be in that number. O when the saints go marching in.”

The saints are simply God’s children. And so, in the celebration of All Saints, the triumphant Church in heaven and the militant Church on earth come together to celebrate the grace of being called God’s children.

That GRACE is given to us equally and enables us to hold firm to our faith and be focused on Jesus, our great Master.

If we remain steadfast in using the graces well, we shall be guided to join that glorious band “who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev 7:14).

Those ones who were seen with white robes were once like us and went through all that we are going through. Reflecting on their lives gives us hope that we can also make it victorious, and this victory (salvation) actually belongs to God (cf. Rev 7:10). So nobody can deny us that if we truly follow and keep the precepts of God.

John saw a great multitude which nobody could count that made it (Rev 7:9); so we all can make it!

Jesus tells us to “strive” to make it (Luke 13:24). And he helps us to understand what we need to do to embrace that victory by giving us the Beatitudes (Matt 5:1-12).

Note that the beatitudes do not direct us to live extraordinary lives but to lives of virtue. The saints who lived this life before us tell us that it does not mean LIVING great but DOING ordinary things in great way.

We pray that at the end of our life here on earth, our robes would be white so as to be enabled to see God as he is (1 John 3:2), rejoicing with all the saints in heaven. Amen.

Have a victorious new month spent in holiness of life. Peace be with you.