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Illustration; Solemnity of all saints by Raphael
Pope Francis’ angelus reflection for Solemnity of All Saints
Saint Peter’s Square – Friday, 1st November 2023
Matthew 5:1-12
Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you
Dear brothers and sisters,
In the Gospel of the Solemnity of All Saints, Jesus proclaims the identity card of the Christian.
And what is the identity card of the Christian? The Beatitudes.
It is our identity card, and also the way of holiness (cf. Apostolic Exhortation (Gaudete et exsultate, 63 – “ The Beatitudes are like a Christian’s identity card. So if anyone asks: “What must one do to be a good Christian?”, the answer is clear. We have to do, each in our own way, what Jesus told us in the Sermon on the Mount).
Jesus shows us a path, that of love, which He Himself took first by making Himself man, and which for us is both a gift from God and our response. Gift and response.
It is a gift from Godbecause, as Saint Paul says, it is He who sanctifies (cf. 1 Cor 6:11 – But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.).
And this is why the Lord is the first we ask to make us holy, to make our heart similar to His (cf. Encyclical Letter Dilexit nos, 168 – Love for our brothers and sisters is not simply the fruit of our own efforts; it demands the transformation of our selfish hearts. This realization gave rise to the oft-repeated prayer: “Jesus, make our hearts more like your own”. Saint Paul, for his part, urged his hearers to pray not for the strength to do good works, but “to have the same mind among you that was in Christ Jesus”).
With His grace, He heals us and frees us from all that prevents us from loving as He loves us (cf. Jn 13:34 – A new commandment[a] I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.), so that in us, as Blessed Carlo Acutis used to say, there may always be “less of me to make room for God”.
This leads us to the second point: our response.
The Father of heaven indeed offers us His holiness, but He does not impose it.
He sows it in us, He makes us taste its flavor and see its beauty, but then He awaits our response.
He leaves us the freedom of following His good inspirations, of letting ourselves be involved in His plans, of making His sentiments ours (cf. Dilexit nos, 179 – Saint Charles de Foucauld sought to imitate Jesus by living and acting as he did, in a constant effort to do what Jesus would have done in his place)), putting ourselves us, as He taught us, in the service of others, with an ever more universal charity, open and addressed to all, to the entire world.
We see all of this in the lives of the saints, even in our own time.
Think, for example, of St Maximilian Kolbe, who in Auschwitz asked to take the place of a father of a family, condemned to death; or of St Teresa of Calcutta, who spent her llife in the service of the poorest of the poor; or of Bishop St Oscar Romero, who was murdered at the altar for for defending the rights of the last against the abuses of their oppressors.
And in this way we can make a list of many saints, many of them: those we venerate on the altars and others, whom I like to call the saints “next door”, the everyday ones, hidden, who go forward in their daily Christian life.
Brothers and sisters, how many hidden saints there is in the Church!
We recognize so many brothers and sisters shaped by the Beatitudes: poor, meek, merciful, hungry and thirsty for justice, workers for peace.
They are people “filled with God”, incapable of remaining indifferent to the needs of their neighbor; luminous paths that are possible for us too.
Let us ask ourselves, now: do I ask God, in prayer, for the gift of a holy life?
Do I allow myself to be guided by the good impulses that His Spirit inspires in me?
And am I personally committed to living the Beatitudes of the Gospel in the environment in which I live?
May Mary, Queen of all saints, help us to make our lives a path of holiness.
