At this time of year nature begins her long sleep of Winter, awaiting its resurrection next Spring. How appropriate this Feast now with its message of detachment from material things before ascending to the riches of an Eternal Spring. The Epistle lifts the veil, beholding “a great multitude which no man could number” entering Heaven. Oh, the comforting thought that it is a great multitude! This view and foretaste of Heaven calls for work to be done on earth.
The Gospel, therefore, sets forth the laws of entrance, the Eight Beatitudes, which make us “blessed,” that is “happy” clearly proving that the Christian Life is not a “giving up” of present things but rather an “exchange” of natural for supernatural things designed to merge sooner or later with those blessings of beatific vision and beatific union, eternal, without end.
The Church in Heaven, All Saints.
The Church in purgatory, All Souls.
The Church on earth, All Sorts.
(Msgr. Ronald Knox)