The Great Multitude
There are saints whose names are carved over church doors, saints whose faces look down from stained glass, and saints whose names have become part of the vocabulary of civilization.
And then there are the others.
The grandmother who prayed every morning and never wrote a book. The father who went quietly to work for forty years. The young woman who forgave something almost impossible to forgive. The priest who served a forgotten parish. The child who died with astonishing trust. The man who failed repeatedly and nevertheless kept returning to God.
Today the Church celebrates all of them.
Saint John sees heaven not as a nearly empty gallery reserved for spiritual celebrities, but as “a great multitude, which no man could number.”
And Christ tells us this morning what these people have in common.
They learned that the road upward often looks remarkably like the road downward.
OPENING VERSE
Lord, open my lips.
And my mouth shall declare thy praise.
INVITATORY
Come, let us adore God, who is wonderful in his saints.
Psalm 94 (95)
Come let us praise the Lord with joy:
let us joyfully sing to God our saviour.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving;
and make a joyful noise to him with psalms.
Come, let us adore God, who is wonderful in his saints.
For the Lord is a great God,
and a great king above all gods.
For in his hand are all the ends of the earth:
and the heights of the mountains are his.
For the sea is his, and he made it:
and his hands formed the dry land.
Come, let us adore God, who is wonderful in his saints.
Come let us adore and fall down:
and weep before the Lord that made us.
For he is the Lord our God:
and we are the people of his pasture
and the sheep of his hand.
Come, let us adore God, who is wonderful in his saints.
Today if you shall hear his voice,
harden not your hearts:
As in the provocation, according to the day of temptation in the wilderness:
where your fathers tempted me,
they proved me, and saw my works.
Come, let us adore God, who is wonderful in his saints.
Forty years long was I offended with that generation,
and I said: These always err in heart.
And these men have not known my ways:
so I swore in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.
Come, let us adore God, who is wonderful in his saints.
PSALMODY
Psalm 62 (63)
The saints thirsted for God; now they rejoice in his presence for ever.
O God, my God, to thee do I watch at break of day.
For thee my soul hath thirsted;
for thee my flesh, O how many ways!
In a desert land, and where there is no way, and no water:
so in the sanctuary have I come before thee,
to see thy power and thy glory.
For thy mercy is better than lives:
thee my lips shall praise.
Thus will I bless thee all my life long:
and in thy name I will lift up my hands.
Let my soul be filled with marrow and fatness:
and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips.
If I have remembered thee upon my bed,
I will meditate on thee in the morning:
Because thou hast been my helper.
And I will rejoice under the covert of thy wings:
My soul hath stuck close to thee:
thy right hand hath received me.
But they have sought my soul in vain,
they shall go into the lower parts of the earth:
They shall be delivered into the hands of the sword,
they shall be the portions of foxes.
But the king shall rejoice in God,
all they shall be praised that swear by him:
because the mouth is stopped of them that speak wicked things.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.
The saints thirsted for God; now they rejoice in his presence for ever.
Canticle — Daniel 3:57–88, 56
Bless the Lord, all his saints; praise him and exalt him above all for ever.
All ye works of the Lord, bless the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye angels of the Lord, bless the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye heavens, bless the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O all ye waters that are above the heavens, bless the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O all ye powers of the Lord, bless the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye sun and moon, bless the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye stars of heaven, bless the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O every shower and dew, bless ye the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O all ye spirits of God, bless the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye fire and heat, bless the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye cold and heat, bless the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye dews and hoar frosts, bless the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye frost and cold, bless the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye ice and snow, bless the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye nights and days, bless the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye light and darkness, bless the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye lightnings and clouds, bless the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O let the earth bless the Lord:
let it praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye mountains and hills, bless the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O all ye things that spring up in the earth, bless the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye fountains, bless the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye seas and rivers, bless the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye whales, and all that move in the waters, bless the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O all ye fowls of the air, bless the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O all ye beasts and cattle, bless the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye sons of men, bless the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O let Israel bless the Lord:
let them praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye priests of the Lord, bless the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye servants of the Lord, bless the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye spirits and souls of the just, bless the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye holy and humble of heart, bless the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, bless ye the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
Let us bless the Father and the Son, with the Holy Ghost:
let us praise and exalt him above all for ever.
Blessed art thou, O Lord, in the firmament of heaven:
and worthy of praise, and glorious for ever.
Bless the Lord, all his saints; praise him and exalt him above all for ever.
Psalm 149
Let the saints rejoice in glory; let them be joyful in their eternal home.
Sing ye to the Lord a new canticle:
let his praise be in the church of the saints.
Let Israel rejoice in him that made him:
and let the children of Sion be joyful in their king.
Let them praise his name in choir:
let them sing to him with the timbrel and the psaltery.
For the Lord is well pleased with his people:
and he will exalt the meek unto salvation.
The saints shall rejoice in glory:
they shall be joyful in their beds.
The high praises of God shall be in their mouth:
and two-edged swords in their hands:
To execute vengeance upon the nations,
chastisements among the people:
To bind their kings with fetters,
and their nobles with manacles of iron.
To execute upon them the judgment that is written:
this glory is to all his saints.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.
Let the saints rejoice in glory; let them be joyful in their eternal home.
SHORT READING
Ephesians 1:17–18
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation, in the knowledge of him:
The eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know what the hope is of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.
SHORT RESPONSORY
Let the just rejoice before God.
Let them rejoice and be glad.
The Lord is wonderful in his saints.
Let them rejoice and be glad.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
Let the just rejoice before God; let them rejoice and be glad.
THE GOSPEL OF THE DAY
Matthew 5:1–12
And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain, and when he was set down, his disciples came unto him.
And opening his mouth, he taught them, saying:
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall possess the land.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake:
Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you.
BENEDICTUS
The saints sought the face of God on earth; now they rejoice before him for ever.
Canticle of Zachary — Luke 1:68–79
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel;
because he hath visited and wrought the redemption of his people:
And hath raised up an horn of salvation to us,
in the house of David his servant:
As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets,
who are from the beginning:
Salvation from our enemies,
and from the hand of all that hate us:
To perform mercy to our fathers,
and to remember his holy testament,
The oath, which he swore to Abraham our father,
that he would grant to us,
That being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
we may serve him without fear,
In holiness and justice before him,
all our days.
And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest:
for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways:
To give knowledge of salvation to his people,
unto the remission of their sins:
Through the bowels of the mercy of our God,
in which the Orient from on high hath visited us:
To enlighten them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death:
to direct our feet into the way of peace.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.
The saints sought the face of God on earth; now they rejoice before him for ever.
INTERCESSIONS
God has gathered into one communion the saints of every nation and century. With them, and trusting in their prayers, let us turn to him.
Response: Lord, make us holy as thou art holy.
For thy Church throughout the world: keep her faithful to Christ, courageous in suffering, generous in mercy, and joyful in hope.
Lord, make us holy as thou art holy.
For our Holy Father, our bishops, priests, deacons, religious, and all who serve thy people: give them the humility to seek holiness rather than recognition.
Lord, make us holy as thou art holy.
For rulers and nations: raise up peacemakers, defenders of the weak, honest servants of the common good, and men and women willing to hunger and thirst after justice.
Lord, make us holy as thou art holy.
For those beginning their work this morning, for parents caring for children, for teachers and students, for craftsmen and laborers, for those whose work is unseen: teach us that ordinary duties faithfully performed may become acts of love.
Lord, make us holy as thou art holy.
For our homes and families: give us patience in irritation, mercy after injury, gratitude for one another, and the grace to recognize holiness when it arrives without ceremony.
Lord, make us holy as thou art holy.
For those who mourn, those who are lonely, those who are ill, those who suffer persecution, and those whose burdens are known only to thee: comfort them and give them companions along the road.
Lord, make us holy as thou art holy.
For all the faithful departed, especially those whose names are forgotten on earth: bring them into the company of the saints, where no faithful act of love is forgotten.
Lord, make us holy as thou art holy.
For ourselves: deliver us from imagining that sanctity belongs only to extraordinary people. Give us grace to become saints in the particular homes, workshops, offices, schools, streets, and circumstances in which thou hast placed us.
Lord, make us holy as thou art holy.
OUR FATHER
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Amen.
CONCLUDING PRAYER
Almighty and everlasting God, who hast shown forth thy grace in the countless company of thy saints, grant us, we beseech thee, the courage to follow Christ in the ordinary circumstances of our lives.
Make us poor enough to receive thy kingdom, meek enough to inherit what force cannot possess, merciful enough to receive mercy, pure enough to desire thy face, and brave enough to rejoice when faithfulness has a cost.
Through the prayers of all thy saints, draw us at last into that great multitude gathered before the Lamb, where every tear is wiped away and every faithful love finds its fulfillment.
Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
BLESSING
May the Lord bless us, protect us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life.
Amen.
THE PARADOX OF THE DAY
The saints became extraordinary by taking the ordinary commands of Christ more seriously than the rest of us do.
CHESTERTON FOR THE MORNING
G. K. Chesterton once described tradition with one of his characteristically cheerful democratic explosions:
“Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead.”
— G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
On All Saints Day, we might dare to extend the joke.
The Church is an even larger democracy than Chesterton described.
It includes the dead who are not dead.
A CHESTERTONIAN MEDITATION
There is something wonderfully unreasonable about a family photograph.
The important people are not necessarily in the center.
There may be a distinguished uncle standing stiffly in his best suit. There may be someone who became prosperous, someone who travelled the world, someone whose name appeared in newspapers.
And then, half hidden at the edge, there is a woman holding a baby.
Perhaps nobody remembers much about her.
Yet without her, half the people looking at the photograph would not exist.
History has a habit of getting the proportions wrong.
Heaven apparently does not.
On All Saints Day, Saint John gives us one of Scripture’s grandest pictures: a multitude so enormous that nobody can count it, drawn from every nation and people and tongue.
That is worth noticing.
Christianity has its famous people. Peter and Paul. Augustine and Aquinas. Francis and Clare. Joan of Arc. Thomas More. Thérèse of Lisieux.
But the astonishing thing about John’s vision is precisely that heaven cannot be reduced to a list of celebrities.
There are too many saints to count.
Most of them never had feast days.
Most never appeared in paintings.
Most never founded religious orders or wrote theological books.
Most, very probably, washed dishes.
They mended things.
They got children dressed.
They went to work when they would rather have stayed in bed.
They cared for elderly parents.
They apologized after arguments.
They prayed when prayer felt dry.
They gave away money they could have used themselves.
They endured illnesses that nobody found particularly heroic except the people who loved them.
And they did these things because somewhere in the ordinary confusion of life they had encountered Christ.
This is where the Beatitudes become rather startling.
We sometimes read them as beautiful religious poetry. But Christ is describing a kingdom whose values appear almost backwards when placed beside the world’s.
The world says blessed are the powerful.
Christ says blessed are the meek.
The world says blessed are those who never lose.
Christ says blessed are they that mourn.
The world says blessed are those who can force circumstances to obey them.
Christ says blessed are the poor in spirit.
The world says blessed are those who win the argument.
Christ says blessed are the peacemakers.
This is not because Christianity despises strength or happiness or achievement.
It is because Christianity knows something the world repeatedly forgets:
the greatest things cannot be seized.
You cannot seize friendship.
You cannot conquer wonder.
You cannot force somebody to love you.
You cannot manufacture forgiveness.
You cannot earn the sunrise.
You cannot command grace.
The most important things in existence arrive as gifts.
And therefore the person most capable of receiving them is not necessarily the person with the strongest grip.
It may be the person with the open hand.
This is the peculiar freedom of the saints.
They have stopped trying to own the universe.
And therefore, astonishingly, it becomes theirs.
“Blessed are the meek,” Christ says, “for they shall possess the land.”
Chesterton would have appreciated the comedy of it.
The conqueror spends his life trying to possess the earth and ends with a few feet of it.
The saint gives up trying to possess the earth and discovers that the whole creation is a gift.
That is why saints are so often associated with ordinary things.
Francis has his birds.
Thérèse has her little way.
Joseph has his carpenter’s bench.
Isidore has his field.
Zélie Martin has her lace.
And countless unnamed saints have had kitchens, barns, classrooms, offices, sickrooms, workbenches and kitchen tables.
Holiness does not abolish the ordinary world.
It reveals it.
A saint is not necessarily someone who has escaped ordinary life.
A saint is someone who has finally discovered how extraordinary ordinary life actually is.
That may be why the Church gives us All Saints Day.
We need the famous saints because examples help us.
But we also need the unnamed saints because excuses are very easy.
We can admire Francis of Assisi and say, “But I am not Francis.”
Quite true.
We can admire Thomas Aquinas and say, “But I am not Aquinas.”
Certainly not.
We can admire Joan of Arc and observe that nobody has asked us to rescue France.
Probably just as well.
But then comes the terrifying multitude.
The shopkeepers and mothers and soldiers and widows and mechanics and farmers and children and teachers and invalids and people whose names have disappeared from every earthly record.
And suddenly the excuse becomes harder.
They were not Francis either.
They were themselves.
That was apparently enough material for God to work with.
Holiness, then, is not primarily becoming someone else.
It is allowing grace to make you completely what you were created to be.
That is why the saints are not identical.
Christian holiness does not produce a row of spiritual factory parts.
Francis is emphatically Francis. Jerome is spectacularly Jerome. Teresa of Ávila is unmistakably Teresa. Thomas More remains Thomas More even while walking toward the scaffold.
Grace does not flatten personality.
It completes it.
The irony is that sin, which promises individuality, is terribly repetitive. Pride looks much the same in every century. Greed has a limited imagination. Lust repeats itself endlessly. Envy is monotonous.
But goodness is infinitely inventive.
There are a thousand ways of being generous because there are a thousand things worth giving.
There are a thousand ways of being courageous because there are a thousand things worth defending.
There are a thousand ways of loving because there are a thousand people who need love.
Thus John’s multitude cannot be numbered.
Christianity does not end with one model saint endlessly photocopied.
It ends with a crowd.
And somewhere in that crowd, God willing, are people we knew.
Perhaps the grandfather whose rosary sat beside his chair.
Perhaps the teacher who quietly changed a life.
Perhaps the woman who brought food when somebody was sick.
Perhaps someone we never thought of as particularly holy because we were too close to see the whole story.
And perhaps that is one final lesson for this morning.
We should be careful about assuming we know where the saints are.
The people in heaven may include some surprises.
Indeed, if the Gospel is true, surprises are almost guaranteed.
For Christ has told us where to look.
Among the poor in spirit.
Among those who mourn.
Among the meek.
Among those hungry for justice.
Among the merciful.
Among the clean of heart.
Among the peacemakers.
Among those who suffer for doing what is right.
They may not look like the winners of the world.
But this morning the veil is pulled aside.
And behind it stands a multitude no man can number.
They have discovered the great secret:
The kingdom belongs to those who were willing to receive it.
CLOSING
This morning, do not ask whether you are capable of becoming some other saint.
You are not called to become some other saint.
Ask instead what the next faithful thing is.
Say the prayer.
Forgive the injury.
Do the work well.
Call the lonely person.
Keep the promise.
Give thanks for breakfast.
Be patient with the person across the table.
Begin again.
Heaven is filled with people who once had an ordinary morning exactly like this one.
All ye holy men and women, saints of God, intercede for us.
Chesterton Radio