Walking with Jesus: All Saints Day

For Sunday, November 1, 2026 

Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14; 1 John 3:1-3; Matthew 5:1-12


I remember hearing about the Jehovah’s Witnesses when I was in Catholic grammar school. They are defined as a non-trinitarian, millenarian Christian denomination that originated in the 19th Century Bible Student movement in the United States. Charles Taze Russell started the publication of Zion’s Watch Tower and formed the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. Joseph Franklin Rutherford succeeded Russell and formally adopted the name Jehovah’s Witnesses. The organization is directed by a centralized governing body based first in Brooklyn and now Warwick, New York. They reject the concept of hellfire and immortal souls, teaching instead that unrepentant sinners face total annihilation. They believe an imminent Armageddon will destroy present human governments to make way for God’s kingdom on earth, which will be ruled by Christ and 144,000 anointed humans while other righteous believers live forever on a paradise Earth. My first encounter was when two members came to my door preaching and distributing Watchtower and Awake magazine. I admired them for their persistence, politeness and dedication.

Few of the New Testament letters, like John’s today, describe what the first generation of Christians thought of and claimed about themselves. They lived in a community named after a “community elder” — in this case John, who probably wrote his letter shortly after his composition of the Gospel of John toward the end of the first century. The community’s greatest values were belief and love among themselves. John states this in his Gospel: “By this they will know that you are My disciples, in that you love one another.” [John 13:35] In this way they distinguished themselves separately from “the world.” To them, a direct encounter with God, in the Risen Christ, would transform believers into what they would become in Heaven after they passed from this world. Heaven meant the presence of God; that was their future that Jesus promised for all who believe. But they had to have faith and live in love. So the Christian has both a present here and a future in heaven.

This is what Jesus promised. Do we believe and live this? If we live in love as best we can, if we can be kind and forgiving, if we pray and worship, if we help those who are hurting — those we know, don’t know and even those who are difficult or impossible to love — the promise is ours. This is what we proclaim on the feast of All Saints. The Gospel reading of the Beatitudes, the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, reminds each of us of our human potential for something higher and seemingly impossible to attain — yet our lives have been modeled by the “holy ones” who lived their lives in love, belief, kindness and forgiveness, praying for help and giving to all in need. They did it! These are not only people from the ancient past but also people we’ve lived with, learned from and admired, who nourished and formed us with their love, kindness and forgiveness.

An interesting exercise is to make a list of people who have touched you, who were good people — loving, kind, forgiving — who enjoyed being people who were just plain good. Write down their outstanding qualities next to their names. A review of your finished work will reveal, undoubtedly, that none were gloomy, none were selfish, and none thought of themselves as “God’s gift to the human race.” They all listened, cared for us, enjoyed living and laughing, had boundless energy, and remained steadfastly positive even in the midst of pain and suffering. We just know they are in Heaven. They loved us and we always felt better after they visited. This is what defines a saint. What do I have to do to start living their example more in my life?

In Latin, each beatitude begins with the word beati which means blessed, happy, or, more accurately, fortunate. There are always two parts to a beatitude: If you do (a), (b) will follow. Look at what they say: How fortunate are those who are poor, mourn, hunger and thirst and are persecuted. This sounds absurd for those without faith. But it begins to make sense when we hear the second part: They will be comforted, they will inherit the land, they will be satisfied, they will be called children of God, they will see God. The eighth chapter of Romans is beautiful in describing what it means to be a Christian and I reread it often: Paul writes, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” [Romans 8:38-39] That’s the people we are honoring ... who lived as Jesus taught and lived. They are in Heaven. Is this my goal?

So I reflect on:

• I have heard the Beatitudes many, many times. I know the words but rarely stop to think about what they call me to be. Do I see the challenge they present to me? I remember each of the special ones I thought about in reflection — each lived them!
• Revelation talks about a time of great distress. Do I see the distress of those around me? What is one way I could help one or more of them? Wouldn’t I be a blessing to them?

Sacred Space 2026 states:

“Jesus really turned things upside down for His followers in this speech. It was the allowed text one Sunday recently and a group of parishioners got together a few days beforehand and tried to work out what the words could mean. I was very taken by comments from our first speaker as we chewed over the points made. He said, ‘If I had been present at the talk I would have got up straightaway and taken the first bus home.’ I might well have been on the same bus myself. If you had been in our group, what comments would you have made?”