Solemnity of All Saints
Massimo Palombella
The Solemnity we celebrate today, with holiness at its heart, invites us to reflect upon the quality of our lives, their authenticity and their meaning.
We are all called to ‘life in abundance’ (Jn 10:10), to the fullness of our humanity and to a growing conformity to Christ. This calling takes shape in the ordinary course of our lives, through the simple, and sometimes seemingly insignificant, realities of everyday existence.
The Beatitudes in today’s Gospel (Mt 5:1–12a) describe precisely this journey. The Greek term μακάριοι (makárioi), ‘blessed’, does not denote a superficial happiness dependent upon outward circumstances, but a state of profound fulfilment arising from a life lived in the Truth. To be poor in spirit, meek, and pure in heart — καθαροὶ τῇ καρδίᾳ (katharòi tē kardía) — is to choose a life free from inner division, ensuring that our decisions correspond, in concrete terms, to what we recognise as true.
To seek the Truth, to undertake an authentic discernment of our lives, and to make choices that express who we truly are inevitably entails renunciation, separation and, at times, suffering. Yet it also opens the way to that inner joy which no one can take from us.
Holiness, then, is neither something alien to our human experience nor a perfection reserved for eternity. It is the possibility, already in our ‘here and now’, of living a fully human life, inwardly grounded, in which happiness and meaning do not depend merely upon what happens to us, but upon the Truth in which we choose to dwell.
All this will find its ultimate fulfilment in eternity. The Gospel promise τὸν θεὸν ὄψονται (tòn theòn ópsontai), ‘they shall see God’ (Mt 5:8), reveals the final destination of this journey: that fullness of life which has already begun to unfold within our earthly existence, and which will reach its completion when every tear shall be wiped from our eyes and we shall see God ‘face to face’.
In the Ambrosian Rite, the Alleluia verse appointed for today’s liturgy is taken from the third chapter of the Book of Wisdom (Wisdom 3:1):
Iustorum animae in manu Dei sunt, et non tanget illos tormentum malitiae.
(The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them).
The accompanying music is a composition of my own. The performance is by the the Musical Chapel of Milan Cathedral, under my direction, during the Pontifical liturgy celebrated on 1 November 2024.
A blessed Sunday and heartfelt greetings.
