Sunday 1 November

First Reading Rv 7:2-4, 9-14 Vision of those who survive the trial

Second Reading  2 Jn 3:1-3 We are already children of God

Gospel Matthew 5:1-12 The Beatitudes

REFLECTION by Fr Michael Tate

The Beatitudes … A Call to Action

How can those suffering grinding poverty such that their whole personality is impoverished – the poor in spirit – be ‘Blessed’? How can those who hunger and thirst for justice be ‘Blessed’? The answer lies in the new community which Our Lord is establishing under the reign of God.

There are people within this new society who do everything possible to lift the poor out of poverty, to comfort those who are mourning, to make sure the gentle share in the earth’s resources, to satisfy the craving for justice. These are ‘saints’ who are merciful, pure in heart, makers of peace.

The full measure of authentic humanity is Jesus Christ. But there are millions, only a few celebrated in the Church’s calendar, who have tried to measure up to the challenge presented by the Teacher of the Beatitudes. These are saints, those who know that they cannot help create the Beatitude society out of some political ideology, but who wholeheartedly respond to the teaching of the One whose Holy Spirit can empower rising to the challenge.

We might pause a moment to pray that God may deal with us mercifully as we fall short of the full stature of the One who embodied the Beatitudes, at the same time as we celebrate the lives of the countless many who have measured up superlatively, the saints whose feast day we celebrate.