First reading: Rev. 7:2–4,9–14

I, John, saw another angel come up from the East, holding the seal of the living God. He cried out in a loud voice to the four angels who were given power to damage the land and the sea, “Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.” I heard the number of those who had been marked with the seal, one hundred and forty-four thousand marked from every tribe of the children of Israel.

After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb.”

All the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They prostrated themselves before the throne, worshiped God, and exclaimed:

“Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, honor, power, and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”

Then one of the elders spoke up and said to me, “Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?” I said to him, “My lord, you are the one who knows.” He said to me, “These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb.”

Second reading: 1 Jn. 3:1–3

Beloved: See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure.

Gospel: Mt. 5:1–12a

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He began to teach them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.”

In other words

Fr. Ton Ynzon, SVD (Christ the King Mission Seminary, Quezon City)

I am unmarried, yet I have often heard amusing and similar stories from former seminary classmates who left the seminary. Many confess that they sometimes forget their wedding anniversaries, much to the dismay of their wives. Inevitably, this leads to their partners being furious, and they end up spending far more to make amends than they would have if they had remembered the date and given a thoughtful yet less costly anniversary gift.

Is this a common affliction among men? Perhaps. But then again, aren’t we all, in some way, guilty of falling victim to the “plague of forgetfulness?” Ironically, our celebration today arises from the sobering reality that, as a society, we suffer from a collective amnesia. We have forgotten—or worse, we remain entirely unaware of—the names of the great men and women who came before us. These individuals lived virtuously, morally, and even sacrificially, often giving their lives for the faith we now enjoy, though too often take for granted.

Tomorrow, All Souls’ Day, we will tell a different story as we lovingly remember some of the names of our dearly departed. But today, the first of November, All Saints’ Day, we must humbly acknowledge that for many of the great souls who shaped our faith and gave us the legacy we now hold, we have collectively forgotten their names. We might think it noble to dedicate a feast day to collectively remember those we have forgotten. What irony! Yet providentially, this feast is not merely a celebration of our forgetfulness. It serves as a powerful reminder that, despite our forgetfulness, God does not overlook those we have forgotten. In His infinite mercy, God has inscribed their names on the palm of His hand and rewarded them far beyond anything the world could ever offer.

Today, we celebrate not only the lives of these forgotten saints but, above all, the faithfulness of God. While we have faltered in keeping our covenant with Him, He has remained steadfast in His commitment to us. He has never wavered, never abandoned His promise, even when we have failed to live as His people.