We are called to heaven, where we will be united for all eternity with our beloved. We are daily reminded of this end during the Rite of Communion when the priest prays, “Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.”[i]
 
Let us as the bride wait for our groom, Jesus Christ, like the wise virgins[ii]. Let us be clothed in the wedding garment so that like the guest in the parable of the wedding feast we are not cast “into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”[iii]
 
What is our wedding garment? “The train and fringes of God’s vesture are the elect, who are the adornment of the Word, the splendor of the Father. For since the Word has espoused our human nature, that nature is His glory, as He is the glory of God. The bride herself is clothed with the justifications of the saints; and when this glittering robe is perfected, the signal will be given for the end of time. This feast announces the ever-growing nearness of the eternal nuptials; for on it we annually celebrate the progress of the bride’s preparation.”[iv]
 
What are the jewels of justifications, the glitter on our bridal gown? Flowing from the Blessed Trinity we have in order, Our Lady, the angels, the patriarchs and prophets, the apostles, the martyrs, the confessors, the virgins, and all the saints. These are the one we honor on the great feast of All Saints. This is the group that the apostle John sees when he writes in Revelation, “After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which not 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.”[v]
 
We are the bride of Christ. The prophet Hosea foretold this when he wrote, “On that day, says the Lord, She shall call me ‘My husband,’ and never again ‘my baal.’ Then will I remove from her mouth the names of the Baals, so that they shall no longer be invoked. I will make a covenant for them on that day, with the beasts of the field, with the birds of the air, and with the things that crawl on the ground. Bow and sword and war I will destroy from the land, and I will let them take their rest in security. I will espouse you to me forever: I will espouse you in right and in justice, in love and in mercy; I will espouse you in fidelity, and you shall know the Lord.”[vi]

Who is Baal? In the Old Testament Baal was a false god whom the Israelites began to worship. The word means “husband”. Through the worship of Baal, the Israelites had not only forgotten their creator but had committed adultery. They, who were espoused by God, had abandoned their spouse for another husband, companion, provider, lover. Elijah and the great miracle God would perform through him would allow the Israelites to realize the power and love of the one true God.
 
The Romans at the time of Christ, had also fell into the cult of the gods, worshiping many gods. Marcus Agrippa, who was born 60 years before Christ, built in Rome, the Pantheon, which is the temple to all gods. It is the Church this time through her martyrs who like Elijah of old would prove to the world the folly of idolatry. Like blood, which clots a wound, thus closing it and healing it, the blood of the martyrs, through the shedding of their blood would clot the mouth of hell. “Support of the Church, perfection of the Gospel, O God like choir of martyrs, ye fulfilled the words of our Savior. For the gates of hell wide yawning against the Church ye have closed and blotted; by the shedding of your blood ye dried up the libations of the idols; your immolation gave birth to the fullness of believers. O admiration of the angels, ye stand crowned before God; beseech him unceasingly for our souls.”[vii]
 
What became of the Pantheon in Rome? The Pantheon still stands and has been an active place of worship since the 7^th century, but now is a Catholic Church with the name “Saint Mary and the Martyrs”. “When Rome had completed the conquest of the world, she dedicated to all the gods, in token of her gratitude, the Pantheon, the most durable monument of her power. But when she herself had been conquered by Christ, and invested by Him with the empire over souls, she withdrew her homage from vain idols and offered it to the martyrs; for they, praying for her as she slew them, had rendered her truly eternal. To the martyrs, then, and to Mary their Queen, she consecrated for ever, on the morrow of her merciful chastisement, the now purified Pantheon.”[viii] Although the Roman Empire was defeated by Christ in the 4^th Century, it would not be until the 7^th Century that the victory would settle into the hearts of the Romans. In the year 609AD Pope Boniface IV would move some of the bodies of the martyrs from the catacombs outside the city to the Pantheon within the city. “The successor of St. Peter, in all his apostolic majesty and surrounded by an immense crowd, presented himself at the entrance of the catacombs. He was attended by eighteen chariots magnificently adorned for the conveyance of the martyrs.”[ix] The hymn sung during this magnificent procession says, “You shall come with joy and proceed with gladness; for behold, the mountains and the hills exult, awaiting you with joy. Arise, ye saints of God, come forth from your hiding places; enter into Rome, which is not the holy city; bless the Roman people following you to the temple of the false gods, which is now dedicated as your own church, there to adore together with you the majesty of the Lord.”[x]
 
This entry into Rome by Pope Boniface IV took place on May 13, which for many years was the Feast of All Saints. In the Eastern Church the feast still takes place the Sunday after Pentecost. The placement of the feast in the East signifies a “spring time”, a time of life for the blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church. In the Western Church the feast was moved to November 1 and honors not only Mary and the Martyrs but all the Saints. “The West celebrates at the close of the year [Liturgical Year] a feast which represents the gathering of the harvest into our heavenly Father’s granary, the East keeps it on the first Sunday after Pentecost, in that springtime of the Church, when, under the action of the Holy Ghost, sanctity was everywhere beginning to blossom.”[xi]
 
This hymn can also be said of us, those living today that look for the living among the current culture of death. Those of us living that live outside the walls of the Church, the holy city. Let all of us too arise. For we are called to be saints of God. We are called to come forth from our hiding places and enter into Rome, Holy Mother Church and bless all those who follow us, so that together we can worship the true and living God.
 
The Israelites who had turned their back on God and committed adultery with Baal were brought back to God, renewed their covenant and as a bride was brought into Canaan, the promised land. The Martyrs of Rome who were persecuted by the pagan Romans, were 600 years later processed from outside the city and welcomed into the great temple where they and their converted persecutors would worship the one true God in the sacredness of the newly consecrated temple. Today feasts expresses again a final procession, the procession of the pilgrim Church, the bride of Christ. Let us turn from our idolatry and renew our covenant with God, especially at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Let us no longer stay on the fringes of the Church, but rather into the fullness of the Church, which sanctifies us and gives us food for our journey to heaven.
 
On this journey we the Bride walk in the footsteps our Spouse, Jesus Christ and the template of this walk are the beatitudes. “Poverty was the first mark of our God in Bethlehem; and who ever appeared so meek as Mary’s Child? Who wept for more noble causes that He in His crib, where He was already expiating our sins and appeasing His Father? They that hunger after justice, the merciful, the clean of heart, the peacemakers: where, save in Him, will they find the incomparable ideal, never attained yet ever imitable? And by His death He became the leader of all those who are persecuted for justice sake.”[xii]

[i] The Order of the Mass, Communion Rite
[ii] Matthew 25
[iii] Matthew 22:13
[iv] Abbot Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Time after Pentecost, Book VI, Feast of All Saints
[v] Revelation 7:9-10
[vi] Hosea 2:18-22
[vii] Abbot Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Time after Pentecost, Book VI, Feast of All Saints
[viii] Abbot Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Time after Pentecost, Book VI, Feast of All Saints
[ix] Abbot Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Time after Pentecost, Book VI, Feast of All Saints
[x] Abbot Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Time after Pentecost, Book VI, Feast of All Saints
[xi] Abbot Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Time after Pentecost, Book VI, Feast of All Saints
[xii] Abbot Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Time after Pentecost, Book VI, Feast of All Saints