On this Solemnity of All Saints, for the Gospel reading the Church has chosen the proclamation of the Beatitudes by Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount. In doing this the Church draws upon a long tradition that has seen in the Sermon on the Mount — the perfect instruction for living the Christian life — for becoming a saint, in other words. In his presentation of the Beatitudes St. Matthew presents Jesus as fulfilling the Law of Moses. Just as Moses went up the mountain to receive the tablets of the Law, which is the basis for the life of Israel, Jesus now ascends the mount to preach His new kingdom. The Beatitudes are the expression of His life, and those who live according to the Beatitudes will become like Him. Yet what it is to become like Him is mysterious. Those who live the Beatitudes provide a powerful witness in their lives of the presence of Jesus Christ, but we can never reduce this to a set of actions. Holiness is manifested in those who live their lives in love of others, but that love itself overflows any attempt we may make to contain it. Each one of us is called to live the Beatitudes in our lives, and to open our hearts fully to the mystery of Christ’s love.
When we read the lives of the saints we can find great inspiration, but we can also find it hard to see how we, with all our faults, can ever approach their holiness. The essential thing in reading the lives of the saints is to focus on Jesus Christ, for the lives of the saints are always to be seen in His light. In Jesus Christ we are all invited to share in a mystery of love that goes beyond our understanding and imagination. It is by welcoming this mystery into our lives that we are able to follow the example of the saints. We often misunderstand the nature of sainthood. Sainthood is not something reserved for a select few within the Church, but it is the calling given to all. As we pray, as we celebrate the liturgy of the Church, as we try through God’s grace as a sharing in the mystery of Christ’s love. At those times when we fail we are called not to lose hope, but to find in our failure the opportunity to encounter Christ’s love, a love on which we can never place limits, a love that calls each of us to holiness.