Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14
Psalm 24:1bc-2, 3-4ab, 5-6
1 John 3:1-3
Matthew 5:1-12a
I couldn't wait to meditate on the Scriptures for this beautiful Solemnity and to thank God for all His wonderful Saints!
We all have our favorites, you know, and all the stories that recount why they seem to be like our very best friends.
For many, St. Anthony, our faithful helper when things are lost, is probably one that many would cite. But what of the unknown and the uncanonized, but yet saints nonetheless--such as our
parents, our siblings, our spouse, a dear friend, or a stranger with their surprising and unsolicited kindness?
These too are among the Throng of Saints in the very truest sense - living heroic lives of faith, hope and love. Not without their faults, as even our canonized saints had them, but real human beings--people we have known and touched, loved and who have loved us in
return; people who sought God and found Him and made Him visible to us by the goodness of their repentant lives.
St. John the Evangelist wrote in the Book of Revelation:
"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.' 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." (see Revelation 7:9-10, 14)
Father Ed Bakker
Anglican Catholic Church / Original Province
Mission of Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne
Bendigo in the Central Goldfields
Australia
