Homily For The Feast of All Saints 2025
Today, we celebrate the final feast day in the Christian calendar - that of All Saints. Throughout the year, we have days appointed in which we remember with greater emphasis events in the life of our Lord - Christmas, Easter, Transfiguration among others. We also celebrate the grace of Jesus Christ at work in the hearts and lives of individuals. These feasts feature primarily the Apostles who were sinners just like you and me. The Holy Scriptures do not hide their frailty. All Saints is the feast for all the faithful in Christ, who lived and died, in complete trust in Christ’s redemption for them. It isn’t a parade of those who were faultless; it isn’t a celebration of perfection. It is, instead, a lively remembrance of man’s need for mercy and grace and God’s love in providing what is lacking. He does this not for just a few, select people but for an immense multitude.
Our Epistle for today is from Revelation Chapter 7 where we read of the joy and gladness of the saints in heaven.
We see the expansiveness of the mercy and love of God. For heaven isn’t just for the physical descendants of Abraham but St. John is careful to mention a “great multitude, which no man can number” from all nations, kindreds, peoples and tongues. Their unity is not in their race, history or common language; rather their unity comes from Christ and their worship of Him. The multitude clothed in white robes, waving the palm branches, they cry out, “Salvation belongs unto our God who sits upon the throne and unto the Lamb.” All the creation, it seems, joins in the worship of the Lord. We read that the angels, the elders, the four living creatures all fall down and ascribe unto the Lord - all blessing, all glory, all wisdom, all thanksgiving, all honor and power and might. All these things belong to God forever.
At this point, in our Epistle, St John is asked by one of the elders where did all this white-robed multitude come from. To which the elder ends up explaining that they are covered with robes that are made glistering white through the scarlet blood of the lamb.
Indeed, they are purified by the death of the perfect one and they stand in the presence of God among his faithful people because they have received his righteousness, his perfection. They are clothed in his righteousness and have been cleansed from their sins. They receive this work from Christ. In doing so, they are transformed in their character. The work of Christ, the love of Jesus is the catalyst of the practical righteousness that we see in the Gospel for today. The joy of the saints in heaven, their triumph, is anticipated on earth by the virtues of Christ’s kingdom as expressed in the Beatitudes, which serve as our Gospel for today.
The elder is careful to say that they have made it through the great tribulation. They have passed through the fires of adversity, the persecution of those who reject God’s rightful rule in this world. Notice that they are blessed with the presence of the true king in his throne room. He dwells among them. The longing of mankind from the Fall of Adam is fulfilled - for God dwells among them forever. There is a promise that they will never hunger or thirst again.
They shall not suffer the pains of this world - known through blinding light or scorching heat. They are protected by the Lamb, the one who clothed them in His righteousness, the Lamb shall feed them and lead them to the living waters with a promise that all suffering, all the burdens of the life of faithful suffering will be relieved by the loving hand of God - who takes away all their tears.
The work of Christ, the love of Jesus is the catalyst of the practical righteousness that we see in the Gospel for today. The joy of the saints in heaven, their triumph, is anticipated on earth and preceded by the virtues of Christ’s kingdom as expressed by the Beatitudes, which serve as our Gospel for today. All the hunger and thirst of the Beatitudes is satisfied by Our Lord in the end - in the eternal reality that constitutes true blessedness. Not for a fleeting moment but for all eternity.
“The beatitudes emphasize eight principal marks of Christian character and conduct, especially in relation to God and to men, and the divine blessing which rests on those who exhibit these marks.” The beatitudes share the structure of the 10 commandments in their concern for proper relationship with God reflected in the first four beatitudes and then the final righteousness outflowing of the right relationship with God coming into our engagement with the world around us.
As to the first four beatitudes, it has been said they “reveal a spiritual progression of relentless logic. Each step leads to the next and presupposes the one that has gone before. To begin with, we are to be ‘poor in spirit’, acknowledging our complete and utter spiritual bankruptcy before God. Next we are to ‘mourn’ over the cause of it, our sins, yes, and our sin too—the corruption of our fallen nature, and the reign of sin and death in the world.
Thirdly, we are to be ‘meek’, humble and gentle towards others, allowing our spiritual poverty (admitted and bewailed) to condition our behaviour to them as well as to God. And fourthly we are to ‘hunger and thirst for righteousness’. For what is the use of confessing and lamenting our sin, of acknowledging the truth about ourselves to both God and men, if we leave it there? Confession of sin must lead to hunger for righteousness.
As to the final four beatitudes, the disciple, having received mercy from God, extends it to others. Those who admit their spiritual poverty, then live with complete integrity. The pure in heart are free from falsehood with both God and man. Their whole life is transparent before God. Only the pure in heart see God - through the eyes of faith now or abide in his glorious presence later.
Having attained peace with God through forgiveness, the follower of Christ is active in reconciling people to God and to people to each other. Finally, Jesus tells his disciples what the result of being merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, they are persecuted for righteousness sake. He is not thanked for his efforts, but rather opposed, slandered, insulted and persecuted on account of the righteousness for which he stands and the Christ with whom he is identified.
Notice the tone of the final sentence in our Gospel. Jesus says “Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven.” Rejoice for your inheritance in heaven; exult with exceeding gladness because God will keep his promise. Our Lord knows that we need to keep the end in view as we serve Him. Union with Christ, by faith, will produce a discipleship that leads in varied forms to suffering here on earth. Jesus wants his disciples to know that hardship may come from following Him.
As it comes, they should not infer that there is a problem with their relationship with God. It isn’t because they have displeased him that they suffer rejection and persecution. It is because they have a new identity, a new focus, a new citizenship that they suffer. He calls them to see their light and momentary afflictions as blessedness. In some sense, he calls us to look at the promise of His eternal kingdom and be so focused on it that the burdens of Christian discipleship will pale in comparison. Think of Jacob’s service for Rachel - Moses tells us in Genesis, “And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her.” Think of the faithful in Hebrews 11 - that great hall of fame of faith. We have the stories of the patriarchs, the judges and the prophets. Some “Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. 35Women received their dead raised to life again:”
We also have the accounts of the unnamed faithful - like the 5000 who only God knew, who didn’t bow the knee to Baal in Elijah’s time; those who loved and served God with anonymity. Unknown to us; loved and known exhaustively by God. Those who did not subdue earthly kingdom nor escape persecution. We read “ others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: 36And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: 37They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; 38(Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.” 39And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: 40God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
They loved the Lord and longed to receive the promise, yet they did not receive it in their lifetime. All of them now are our heavenly spectators. In Hebrews 12, we read, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Let us look to their examples and our author and finisher of our faith so that we can see the blessedness of the beatitudes in the midst of persecution amidst the suffering of this life.
So, on this feast of All Saints, let us rejoice. For, salvation truly belongs to God and to the Lamb. This salvation, this entry into God’s joyful presence pictured in the Epistle, belongs to and is purchased by God. It is received, it is bestowed, it is a gift - to clothe the saints in the only righteousness, the only perfection that God will receive - that of the Lamb, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This gift of salvation received by an innumerable multitude is the inheritance of those who are united to Jesus - who submit themselves to His Lordship, his rule. Being clothed in his righteousness gives us the courage to embrace the burden of the yoke of Christ. Expressed in the Beatitudes which constitute our Gospel for today.
We should rejoice but also receive comfort. All who died in the faith of Jesus Christ are alive in another sense before God. They have entered into their rest and they eagerly await our successful finishing of the race.
They cheer us on - in our challenges and in our successes. Let us remember that when we come to the Eucharist, this great thanksgiving meal, we are joined with the saints in heaven. We are in the presence of the heavenly crowd. We join our voices with theirs in a few moments when I will say - with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious name. We sing with all the chorus of heaven the Holiness of God, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Every time we celebrate Holy Communion, we participate in heavenly worship and we anticipate the great homecoming, the great reunion of all the saints. We await the fulness of it, but even now in our worship service. we go up to heaven to commune with all who have died in the faith before. It is a foretaste, a deposit of hope, on what is to come. This is why we have common worship, this is what sets apart what we do here in this holy place from the kind of communion we have with God in nature.
Think of all who have died, who are no longer with us here on earth - parents, spouses, children, friends and mentors. They are not dead, but alive in Christ. Holy Communion is a reminder that there is a fundamental unity of all God’s people, physically living or physically dead, for we all are one in Christ regardless of our physical presence in this world. Amen.
