A Word of Hope for Nov 1, All Saints Day, by Fr. Greg Heille, OP from the Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri.
Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness.
On this Solemnity of All Saints, we remember the German Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who ran an underground seminary in resistance to the Nazi regime, wrote "The Cost of Discipleship," and was hanged at Flossenbürg Concentration Camp. He paid the cost of discipleship.
Today's readings call us to the same path:
📖 Revelation 7 – "A great multitude which no one could count, from every race, people, and tongue... They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."
📖 Matthew 5 – The Beatitudes, the archetypal passage of Christian discipleship from the Sermon on the Mount.
📖 Matthew 11:28 – "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest."
For hundreds of years, the Church has honored the saints who lived the vision of the Sermon on the Mount with love, devotion, and sacrifice. And today we remember something more: we are part of that multitude. Every day-to-day Christian, in every time and place, is called to live the vision of Jesus and to join ourselves to the Lord on his cross in the dear hope of his resurrection.
Alleluia, as we remember all the saints.
⏱️ IN THIS VIDEO
0:00 – Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the German resistance
0:44 – The cost of discipleship at Flossenbürg
1:09 – Revelation 7: the great multitude in white robes
2:22 – Why the Church celebrates All Saints
2:44 – The Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount
3:52 – "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened"
4:28 – We are part of that multitude
🙏 A WORD OF HOPE
A Word of Hope offers short reflections on the Sunday and feast day readings, bringing the Scriptures into conversation with our lives today. New videos each week.
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