By our Christian grace, by the mystery of faith, we are meant to live on this earth--and above all to live eternally, in Jesus--the mystery of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In other words, we are meant to live the "beatific vision." Today's entire liturgy reminds us of this, which is announced to us in the vision of the Heavenly Jerusalem (Rev. 3:12; 21:2, 10). The evangelical beatitudes, which we have just heard, are read to show us all the divine paths that lead directly to Jesus' wounded and glorious heart. There is no other light in the Heavenly Jerusalem than the very light of Jesus (Rev. 21:23), the very light of the Blessed Trinity. The Cross gives us, as it were, an icon of the Blessed Trinity: Jesus in His mystery of the holocaust at the Cross, the glorious Cross; Mary already glorious in her mystery of the Compassion (isn't the expression of Saint Peter, "rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy" [1 Pet. 1:8] eminently true for Mary? The Cross is not glorious because of the Resurrection. The Cross is glorious in itself, through the victorious love of suffering); and John as beloved son--already glorious son--of Mary. This is our icon, and we must live by this in the strongest possible way. This is what will give us divine hope: living the mystery of this holiness every day of our life, even now. This is what will root us in faith and will give us "the glorious liberty of the children of God" (Rom. 8:21), this liberty which comes from love, this liberty which enables us to truly love Jesus and Mary, and by loving them to love all our brothers.
Let us desire to live more and more this rapture of love which the Father wants to bring about in the depths of our being. We are all meant to live this mystery of heaven even now, on this earth. We are all meant to orient our outlook, our heart, all our sensibility, our entire selves toward this mystery of God, of the Most Blessed Trinity. This mystery is so close to us since the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit live in the depths of our heart, and since we are already substantially united in faith, hope, and charity to the mystery of the great victory of Christ crucified. This is the great victory of love over death, over suffering, over sorrow, which always enables us to transcend the shadows, sometimes so opaque, that we carry in our human psychology. Never forget that what seems to be deepest in our psychology is neither what is deepest in our heart nor most profound in our intelligence. The victory of Jesus is already given to us in the depths of our heart and our intelligence, where faith, hope, and love are rooted; and we must understand that even now, on this earth, we are related to all the saints and closer to them than to those who live next to us because Jesus, with whom they are one, is closer to us than those who live next door. Thus, through Jesus, the saints in heaven are closer to us than those with whom we live.

This is the grace we must ask today: to already live by this mystery of the evangelical beatitudes; to enter into this divine poverty; to enter into this mercy; to enter, with all those who desire the peace of Christ, into truth. Otherwise this feast has no meaning for us. If we live these evangelical beatitudes by trying to orient everything in our life towards Jesus and towards Mary, we are already saints. We know that there will always be obstacles on earth, that there will always be struggles, that there will always be sufferings and sorrows; yet we also know that we carry within us the grace of Christ, the victory of the white horse which is depicted in the Apocalypse (Rev. 19:11-16; cf. 6:20), and that we must bear witness to this in today's world. Do not be among those who are desperate, conquered, among those who are crushed by the struggles, the sorrows, who have "borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat" (Mt. 20:12). We are victorious, as Saint Paul says, we are "more than conquerors" (Rom. 8:37; "No, in all things we are more than conquerors [supervincimus] through him who loved us"), through the great victory of Christ. This is what we must keep in the depths of our heart as the grace of these few days. We are bound to Jesus, to Mary, and to Saint John, and we form on earth a large family marked by the seal of God, the seal of the Lamb, the seal of baptism which permits us to be of Christ, and which binds us to Mary and Saint John. We only have one desire, to fully live by this spirit of love.

You can rely upon your brothers and sisters, who are your brothers and your sisters. We can rely upon you who live in the world and who are also brothers and sisters, because the grace is the same, and holiness is the same for those who live in the world and those who live in such privileged places as priories or monasteries. This is the exterior; what is needed is to look inside the hearts of those who live in the light of Christ and in His love. Of course, the rhythm of contemplative and apostolic life is not the same as the rhythm of family life; we must not confuse these two ways of living. Yet we have the same love and we strive toward the same goal; we have the same hope and the same faith. This is what is so great, and this is what we must live as much as possible so that we do not become entrapped by the seductions of the world, or destroyed by the suffering and the setbacks of today's world. We must go beyond all this, knowing that Mary is our Mother and that Jesus loves us with an everlasting love.

Tuesday, November 1, 1995
Homily for Mass of All Saints