On this joyful festival of All Saints, we raise our minds and hearts to Heaven. Today’s first reading tells us what we can see there: “a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue.” They are standing “before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes…” They are in the presence of God, praising him in song. How did they get there? It is a question we ask not only about the saints who are already in Heaven, but about ourselves too: How can we join this great multitude? We cannot purify ourselves and yet we need to be pure, clean of heart, in order to see God, to be in his presence. The reading from Revelation goes on to tell us, “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.”
The journey of the saints in this life was not one of consolations and joy only. It was also one of challenges and desolation; it was one of cooperation with Christ’s purifying love. They lived in obedience to his divine will, dying to self and being led by the Holy Spirit.
There are many aspects of the purifying process: accepting contradictions and disappointments throughout life; mourning the loss of loved ones and seeing some of them go astray; accepting our own limitations, our lack of power and influence, and thus acquiring meekness; battling injustices and hungering for righteousness; being merciful to the least among us and the most difficult among us; frequent Confession to keep our heart clean; promoting peace when division runs rampant; being insulted and persecuted for following the teachings of Holy Mother Church and living a life counter to the culture of the day – in sum, the way to holiness is to live by the program Jesus teaches us in the Beatitudes.
Why go through all these difficulties? Our Theme for this week, quoting the Catechism of the Catholic Church, answers this succinctly and beautifully: “Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness” (CCC 1024). Because we are children of God, our home is Heaven. “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God,” the Gospel reminds us. This vision of God, the beatific vision, is our hope. This is the goal of all our work in this life, and it is God’s desire for each and every one of us! In God’s great mercy and love for us he provides us “with every spiritual blessing in the heavens” (Eph 1:3) to make this a reality.
Let us cooperate with God’s grace so that he can make us holy, thus adding to this kaleidoscope of color and reflecting the beauty of God to a world in great need of it.
What current hardships or disappointments am I refusing to hand over to Christ for purification? How am I striving to do God’s will and dying to self? In what way do I see the Beatitudes as a compass for my spiritual life?
Excerpt from The Anawim Way, Volume 22, no. 8. More information about The Anawim Way may be found here.