Scripture Reflection - November 1, 2026

Solemnity of All Saints

Revelation 7: 2-4, 9-14         Ps. 24: 1-2, 3-4, 5-6           1 John 3: 1-3      Matthew 5: 1-12a

Today, we celebrate the sanctity of all the faithful who have gone before us, and with whom we are forever united in the Communion of Saints. Scholars tell us that the phrase “Communion of Saints” is nowhere to be found in the Bible, yet many phrases and expressions in both the Old and New Testaments point to this profound reality, which eventually became a doctrine of our Church.

Jesus creates communion through his inclusive meals and table-sharing with those considered outcasts throughout his lifetime, culminating in the Last Supper and the Eucharistic Communion that sustains us as one in Christ’s Body. And though Saint Paul is not one of the authors of today’s readings, he frequently addresses the communities of disciples to whom he writes as “saints.”

This became clear to me when I was on the New York Parish Mission Team and my teammate Sr. Kathleen Kuczkowski, OSU, wrote a reflective letter to our live-in-community, addressing us as “saints.” She didn’t mean that we were perfect (far from it!), but she did mean that we were faithful disciples trying to live out God’s will and seeking to advance God’s reign in the best way we could with what we had. Most importantly, we were doing it together: Christian discipleship is always a communal endeavor! We don’t do it alone.

Our Gospel for today, Matthew’s version of the Beatitudes, is one often proclaimed at Masses of Christian Burial, and for good reason. Stemming from the Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament, it describes the contours of the Reign of God and the fulfillment of God’s Covenant Promise to Israel, that gradually comes about in time through the responsive lives of God’s People amid Creation.

In our first reading from Revelation, John presents two different but complementary apocalyptic visions, one earthly and the other heavenly. These visions depict trial and tribulation, as well as the eschatological overcoming, not through the effort of the individuals in the universal assembly, but through the redeeming grace of God operating through the blood of the Lamb.

These days, we can have a hard time with sacrificial images of lambs and blood. However, there is a theme of sacrifice here. When we think of the journeys of our loved ones who have been laid to rest, we become deeply conscious of the sacrifices their lives entailed, sacrifices made out of love and longing for a better life for their loved ones and those who came after. True sacrifice is never about self-negation; it is about laying down one’s full life in love.

Perhaps this helps us better understand the paradox of the Beatitudes, which essentially tell us that the very things the world says should make us miserable are precisely the things that make us happy and blessed agents in the Reign of God. These include being poor in spirit and recognizing our dependence on God; being meek and understanding the power of God’s vulnerable rule; hungering and thirsting for justice and righteousness; and accepting persecution for being like Jesus, God’s Son.

John tells us in the second reading that we have been made God’s children by God’s transforming, recreating love. As such, we are already a new creation, not in sync with the temporal world. If we remain faithful, we will share in some dimension of Jesus’ earthly fate. But we will do so through the power of the Resurrection, which has already established the fulfillment of Creation’s Covenant Promise in eternity. We live from the Resurrection – already, but not yet.

Happy Feast Day, all you Saints of God!

Sr. Kathleen McManus, OP