Twenty First Sunday after Trinity All Saints
“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.”
Summary
Today we celebrate the feast of All Saints and both our readings speak of those saintly ones who have been through suffering. Revelation 7:9-17, tells of those who have been through tribulation but now, God blesses them and wipes the tears from their eyes. In the New Testament it is not just the few who have experienced persecution who are called saints but the whole community of believers. In Matthew’s version of the beatitudes, Matthew 5:1-12, those who suffer: the hungry, the oppressed, the bereaved, are blessed not because of their suffering but because their suffering is addressed: blessed are the hungry, not because they are hungry, but because they shall be filled. Here it is not God who will wipe the tears from their eyes but the peacemakers and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. In a community of saints there is no longer any need for Saints, particular, special, venerated individuals, because there is no need for the one to be sacrificed for the many – instead the many work together to ensure that the one never has to be sacrificed.
FIRST READING
Revelation 7:9-17
After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying,
‘Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!’
And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, singing,
‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honour
and power and might
be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.’
Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, ‘Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?’ I said to him, ‘Sir, you are the one that knows.’ Then he said to me, ‘These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
For this reason they are before the throne of God,
and worship him day and night within his temple,
and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.
They will hunger no more, and thirst no more;
the sun will not strike them,
nor any scorching heat;
for the Lamb at the centre of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of the water of life,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’
GOSPEL
Matthew 5.1-12
‘‘When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
‘Blessed are you when people 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 in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
