Salve, Regina, Mater Misericordiae.
Praised be Jesus and Mary.
Today we celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints,
Holy Day of Obligation.
And we see in St. John's vision in the first reading,
he has a vision of all of the souls in heaven,
and he says he sees a great multitude.
And this seems to contrast or contradict
what our Lord was teaching us the last few days
in the Gospels that we were reading,
where our Lord is talking about the few that are saved
compared with the many that are lost.
St. John says he has a vision and he sees a great multitude
which no one can count from every nation, race, people, and tongue.
That sounds like a lot of people.
Of course it is. It's a great multitude.
And so when you consider, you reconcile these two parts of Revelation
by understanding that,
those who are saved are, in fact, a great multitude.
But it's only when considered with comparison to those who are lost
that they are to be considered few.
So these who are saved, they stand before the throne of the Lamb,
and they're wearing white robes,
and they're holding palm branches in their hands.
The white robes is to signify the purity of their souls.
Remember the book of Revelation says that,
nothing impure will enter heaven.
So that's why we must be purified either in this life
or in the next impure purgatory
in order to wear the white robe.
This is also why in the sacrament of Holy Baptism
the infants are clothed, or even if they're adults,
after baptism they're clothed with the white gown.
That's to signify the purity of their soul.
Immediately after baptism they are pure and holy in God's sight.
And so that white robe that they wear signifies that,
and it is meant to also prefigure the white robe
that they will receive in heaven
if they persevere in God's grace and keep that purity.
Okay, we go to the second reading,
which talks about the purity.
Everyone who has this hope of reaching heaven,
based on him, our Lord, makes himself pure as he is pure.
So the book of Revelation goes on to describe who these people are.
Saint John asks the angel who's guiding them,
Who are these wearing the white robes,
and where did they come from?
And the angel answers Saint John,
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.
They have survived the time of great distress.
That refers particularly to the great distress,
the time of distress that will precede the second coming,
that our Lord predicts in the Gospel,
the great distress that is shortened.
And if it was not shortened,
then even the elect would not be saved.
But for the cause of the elect,
the time of great distress just before the second coming was shortened.
But it also means, in a more general sense,
the great distress that all of those who faithfully follow our Lord in this world must undergo.
The Acts of the Apostles says that we must pass through many tribulations if we are to be saved.
So those who are trying to live a faithful life and to follow our Lord authentically and sincerely,
if you are undergoing distress or tribulations,
that's probably a good sign.
But if in living your Christian faith,
or what you consider to be the Christian faith,
you are not experiencing any trials or temptations or difficulties,
that's probably not a good sign,
especially if you've been doing this for a number of years.
So these are the ones who have survived the time of great distress,
in a general sense, just passing through this valley of tears.
And they have washed their robes, their souls,
and made them white,
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb,
the blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
The Responsorial Psalm also reveals to us
characteristics of those,
that great multitude, those who will be saved.
Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
This desire to see the face of God.
Remember, this was the great desire of Saint Teresa of Avila.
I want to see God.
Even when she was a little child, she wanted to see God,
but she knew she had to die before seeing the face of God.
So what did she do?
As a young girl, she took off with her brother to go and become martyrs.
And they were stopped when they didn't get too far out of town by their uncle.
So this desire should also be present in our hearts.
We should want to see the face of God.
So who can ascend the mountain of the Lord?
Who can stand in his holy place?
One whose hands are sinless,
whose heart is clean,
who desires not what is vain.
So we need to avoid sin,
have clean, pure hearts,
and not to desire the vanities of the world.
All of these characteristics of the great multitude,
the saints who are in heaven.
The second reading talks more about the condition of those
who have been saved and are now in heaven.
Remember, today we celebrate not only those who have been canonized,
but all of the saints who are in heaven.
And probably most of them we don't know.
The Roman Martyrology has about 9,000
canonized saints in it.
Or maybe some of those are blessed.
But certainly there's many, many more in heaven
than that who have not been canonized
and who are unknown to us.
So what shall we be?
What we shall be has not yet been revealed.
Eye has not seen,
ear has not heard,
nor has it entered the heart of man
what God has prepared for those who love him.
We don't know exactly what heaven will be like.
It remains a mystery to us.
We do know that when it is revealed,
we shall be like him.
We shall be like our glorified Lord.
All of the characteristics of his glorified body,
no more suffering,
impassibility, agility,
glory, all of these things,
we shall be like him.
For we shall see him as he is.
We shall see God as he is face to face.
So let's remember that heaven is our goal
and we have this great cloud of witnesses,
all of these saints
who have borne witness with their own lives
and who are interceding for us,
that we too will make it there.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.