From the responsorial psalm: “Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD? or who may stand in his holy place? One whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean, who desires not what is vain. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 5:1-12a)

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He began to teach them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.”

Today’s Solemnity of All Saints honors the men and women throughout the ages who lived a life of holiness. The Beatitudes reveal the roadmap—the guidelines Jesus gave to them and to all of us—to achieve sanctity. Each of the saints, a cloud of witnesses who intercede for us to the Father, lived out the Beatitudes as they accomplished his will. For each of the Beatitudes that is lived out, Jesus promises a reward now (“for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven”) and in the life of the world to come. “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God. . . . Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.”

God, help me see in the Beatitudes a way of being and the goodness that follows. Each Beatitude is in itself a way to holiness and results in its natural end: to the merciful mercy will be shown; to peacemakers, peace as children of God; to the persecuted for the sake of Christ, the kingdom of heaven. In the first reading, John describes the great multitude of the saints in heaven as they cry out to you: “Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb.” With the psalmist, in the company of all the holy men and women who have gone before us, I pray: “Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.” Bless me, Lord, as I hunger and thirst for the truth of your love. All you angels and saints, pray for us!

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.