The Solemnity of All Saints, Tuesday, November 1, 2022

Revelation 7, 2–4; 9–14

I, John, saw another angel come up from the East, holding the seal of the living God. He cried out in a loud voice to the four angels who were given power to damage the land and the sea, “Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.” I heard the number of those who had been marked with the seal, one hundred and forty-four thousand marked from every tribe of the children if Israel.  After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb.”  All the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They prostrated themselves before the throne, worshiped God, and exclaimed: “Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, honor, power, and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”  Then one of the elders spoke up and said to me, “Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?” I said to him, “My lord, you are the one who knows.” He said to me, “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 Solemnity of All Saints has its origins in the first commemorations of the martyrs in the early years of the Church.  Originally, individual martyrs were honored at Mass, but during the ferocious persecutions mounted by such Roman Emperors as Decius and Diocletian large groups of Christian’s were martyred together, such as the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste.  Since a commemoration of each could not be done, they were celebrated together in one feast.  Later in the fourth century we find mentions of local feasts to honor all the martyrs.  Gregory IV (827-844) extended to the whole Church the celebration of all the saints, including those not martyred, on November 1.

The First Reading for this solemnity, from the Book of Revelation, presents parts of a vision in heaven as seen by the Apostle John.  “Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.”  Some commenters say that the “angel” who cried out this command was the Son of God, the Angel of good counsel (cf. Isaiah 9, 6).  He orders that the followers of God be protected from the evils that plague the world throughout history but especially at the end of the world.  The heavenly angels put “seals” on the foreheads of the faithful.  This would mark them as Christians as not as Jews for the Jews wore the shemah, the words of Deuteronomy 6, 4, their creed, on their foreheads.  The seal (or, better, “sign”) put on the foreheads of believers would be that of the Cross.  “I heard the number of those who had been marked with the seal, one hundred and forty-four thousand marked from every tribe of the children if Israel.”  John tells us that those who received the sign were Jews who had become Christians.  The number is not to be taken literally.  It signifies that all who were to receive the seal received it and that no one who was to receive it was left out.

“After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.”. These are the Gentile Christians.  The white robe and palm branch identify them specifically as martyrs, but we know them also to indicate virgins and confessors as well.  The white robe signifies purity and virtue while the palm branch indicate their victory over their persecutors and the temptations of this world.  “Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb.”  The saints rejoice in the salvation that God has awarded them, won for them by the Sacrifice of the Lamb for us.  They are forever free from pain and the assaults of the devil and bask in the torrential love of Almighty God.

“The angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They prostrated themselves before the throne, worshiped God.”  The Church is signified in a number of images in the Book of Revelation.  We have seen the Jewish and Gentile Christians constituting the Church Militant on earth being received into heaven.  The four living creatures and the elders signify the Church Glorified, already in heaven.  “Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, honor, power, and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”  This is the hymn of the Church in heaven, ever rendering praise and thanksgiving to God.

“Then one of the elders spoke up and said to me, ‘Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?’ I said to him, ‘My lord, you are the one who knows.’ He said to me, ‘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 elder, a member of the Church Glorified, asks a question of John, who looks upon the great beauty of those robed in white, and he cannot answer.  John, still living and so a member of the Church Militant, is told that these are the ones lately admitted to the ranks of the saints in heaven.  John himself will join them in a few years.  These holy men, women, and children have “survived” the great distress (or “persecution”).  The word “survived” is an incorrect translation, though.  The Greek word simply means “came”: “they came from” or “they came out of” the great persecution.  The saints did not “survive” the persecution: they triumphed in it, dying for Christ and their souls rising to heaven.  We can understand this great persecution in two ways: as a particular persecution at the end of the world: “Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved” (Matthew 24, 21-22).  Or, we can understand this persecution as one beginning with the death of St. Stephen and continuing to the present day, with various nations, social movements, and the world itself at war with the Church and her members.  Many will be killed giving witness to Christ, and many others will live out their lives on earth, persevering in the Faith despite the devil’s most vicious attempts to compel them to give up.

We pray to the saints of God that they will continually assist us with our prayers until we can join them in glory.