Homily: Solemnity of All Saints
Revelation 7:2–4, 9–14 | 1 John 3:1–3 | Matthew 5:1–12a
1 November 2026
Fr. Ricky Cañet Montañez, AA
Have others ever misjudged you, said hurtful things about you, questioned your intentions, or twisted your words? Nakakainis. Nakakagalit. Hindi ba? (Frustrating. Infuriating. Isn’t it?) We react that way because we are deeply hurt. The pain gets much worse when the offenders are people we know, people we trust, or people we never expected would harm us. Instinctively, we defend ourselves and try to explain our side, correct the story, and reveal the truth. Other times, we go a step further, believing we are justified in retaliating and saying something equally hurtful. We pass the hurt along. We become unkind because someone was unkind to us. As followers of Christ, this is not the attitude we should have. We need to choose differently.
Although it may seem impossible, there are indeed those who have suffered injustice but refused to retaliate. Their choice is neither a sign of weakness nor an inability to stand up for themselves but rather a firm refusal to allow another person’s wrongdoing to determine the kind of person they will become. This, brothers and sisters, is a beautiful way for us to understand holiness on this Solemnity of All Saints.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives us a rather surprising picture of holiness through the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3–12). He declares that the merciful, the meek, the peacemakers, and those who are persecuted for righteousness are all blessed. This does not mean these people have had easy lives. In fact, they are likely people who have been wounded, misunderstood, or treated unfairly. They have experienced the harshness of life but have refused to surrender their goodness to it.
If we really think about it, we would all agree that it is easy to return goodness for goodness, kindness for kindness. It takes very little effort to be kind to people who are kind to us. It is easy to be generous when people appreciate us. It is easy to be peaceful when nobody disturbs our peace. But what happens when we are treated unfairly? What happens when somebody betrays our trust, damages our reputation, or speaks against us? Is it still easy for us to treat them with compassion and understanding? That is where the true test of holiness begins.
Perhaps the truest victory in handling difficult situations is not in getting even, having the last word, or proving that we were right, but in being able to walk away and give the other person space without carrying the same bitterness that was thrown our way. This is not weakness. It is the strength of someone who refuses to let hatred spread. This does not mean we should tolerate injustice, pretend that we are not hurt, or allow others to abuse us. To forgive does not make a grave offence acceptable. It simply means that we refuse to surrender our hearts to hatred or let what happened define the rest of our lives.
This brings us to the First Reading. In the Book of Revelation, John sees “a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue” standing before God’s throne (Revelation 7:9). When asked who these people are, the answer is that they are the ones who have survived the time of great distress and have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 7:13–14). They are not people who were spared suffering. They are people who passed through it and remained faithful. Their victory was not that they had defeated everyone who opposed them. Their victory was that they remained faithful to the Lamb.
The Second Reading reveals the deeper reason why this is possible. John writes, “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are!” (1 John 3:1). We are God’s children. And if we are children of God, we are called to resemble our Father. We are called to make His mercy visible, even when others show no mercy; to make His love visible, even when others fail to love; and to make His peace visible, even when others create conflict. (This is not at all easy!) What is even more encouraging is that God does not expect us to be perfect overnight. As John reminds us, we are still becoming what God intends us to be (1 John 3:2–3). So, it is all right to be patient with ourselves.
As we look to the Communion of Saints today, perhaps we can learn from them that we do not have to become like the people who hurt us. The world already has enough people who pass their wounds on to others. We need more people who break that cycle. People who have been hurt but refuse to pass that hurt on to others. People who have experienced cruelty but still choose kindness. People who have been misunderstood but still refuse to become bitter. Today, we celebrate the saints not because they were superhuman, but because they show us how extraordinary goodness is still possible in an ordinary human life.
The saints remind us that we may not always have control over what people do to us, what they say about us, or how they treat us. But with God’s grace, we can still choose to be holy.
