Commentary of the day
Saint Gregory the Great : “The Kingdom of heaven is theirs”
Reading
Revel. 7,2-4.9-14.
Then I 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 Israelites: 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.
Ps 24(23),1-2.3-4.5-6.
A psalm of David. The earth is the LORD'S and all it holds, the world and those who live there. For God founded it on the seas, established it over the rivers. Who may go up the mountain of the LORD? Who can stand in his holy place? "The clean of hand and pure of heart, who are not devoted to idols, who have not sworn falsely. They will receive blessings from the LORD, and justice from their saving God. Such are the people that love the LORD, that seek the face of the God of Jacob." Selah
1 Jn 3,1-3.
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.
Mt 5,1-12.
When he 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. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB
Commentary of the day
Saint Gregory the Great (c.540-604), Pope, Doctor of the Church
Homily 14 on the Gospel; PL 76, 1129
“The Kingdom of heaven is theirs”
In the Gospel, Jesus says: “My sheep hear my voice; I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life,” (Jn 10,27). A little earlier on he had said: “Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture,” (v.9). For we come in through faith but go out of faith towards the vision face to face. Passing from belief to contemplation, we will find pasture for our eternal repose. The Lord’s sheep are those, therefore, who gain access to these pastures, for whoever follows him in simplicity of heart receives grass that is always green as his food. What are the pastures for these sheep if not the profound joy of a paradise ever green? The pasture of the elect is the face of God, present and beheld in contemplation, in a vision without shadows. The soul fills itself with this food of life forever. In these pastures those who have escaped the nets of worldly desires are satisfied eternally. There, the choirs of angels are singing; there, the heavenly host come together. There, there is a welcome feast for those who return after the hardships of their sad sojourn abroad. There are to be found the choir of prophets with their piercing eyes, the twelve apostolic judges, the victorious army of innumerable martyrs whose joy is all the greater insofar as they were cruelly tormented here below. In that place the steadfastness of the confessors of the faith is comforted by receiving its reward. There are to be found those faithful men whose strength of soul could not be softened by the pleasures of this world; the holy women who overcame both their weakness and this world together; the children who, through the way they lived, were raised far above their years; the elderly, whom age did not weaken here below and whose strength for the task did not desert them. Beloved brethren, let us go in search of those pastures where we shall become happy in the company of so many saints.
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