Every family has a resemblance. Sometimes it is the eyes or the laugh, or a way of standing at the back of a room with your arms crossed, exactly like your father did. People who know the family spot it instantly. People who don't miss it entirely, and may even find it a little strange.
That is the heart of this Sunday's readings.
Becoming Like the Father
Saint John writes: "See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are."
We are already His children. But John is clear that the story is not finished: "What we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him." We belong to the family now, and we are still growing into the resemblance.
That is the work of the Christian life. Because we are already loved, we do not strive to earn our place in the family. We strive to look more and more like the Father we already belong to. And we do not do it alone. It is through grace, through the strength of the Holy Spirit, that we are given the ability to become more like Jesus. Our part is to say yes, every day, and to cooperate with what God is already doing in us.
Why the World Doesn't Understand
John adds a line that every serious Christian eventually feels in his bones: "The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him."
When you start becoming like God, people notice, and they don't always like it. You leave the meeting early for your daughter's game. You pray before a meal in a crowded restaurant. You say no to something everyone else says yes to. And you get the look: a raised eyebrow, a joke at your expense, the sense that people have decided you are a little odd.
John's point is that this is not evidence you are wrong. It is evidence of a family resemblance the world cannot recognize, because it has never met the Father. If they knew Him, they would see His image showing up in you. They would recognize the look.
What the Resemblance Looks Like
So what does "becoming like God" actually look like? Jesus answers that question on the mountain.
The Beatitudes are not a list of nice sentiments. The Catechism calls them a portrait of Christ's own charity (CCC 1717). When Jesus says "Blessed are the poor in spirit," "Blessed are the meek," "Blessed are the merciful," "Blessed are the peacemakers," He is describing Himself. He is showing us the face of the Son, which means He is showing us what a child of God looks like when the resemblance is fully grown.
And notice how the list ends: "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."
Jesus ties the two readings together Himself. The person who becomes poor in spirit, meek, merciful, and clean of heart will look strange to a world that measures life by wealth, power, and comfort. Being misunderstood for His sake is not a sign that something has gone wrong. It is a sign the resemblance is showing.
A Feast Full of Examples
That is why the Church gives us this Gospel on All Saints Day. The saints are the proof that the Beatitudes are not just an ideal. Real men and women actually lived them.
They were fishermen and soldiers, mothers and fathers, scholars and farmers. Many were mocked, dismissed, or killed by people who could not see what they saw. The world did not know them, because it did not know Him. But they kept saying yes, and little by little the family resemblance grew until it was unmistakable.
Today, the whole Church celebrates them, because what was hidden has been revealed. Everyone now knows whose they were.
That is our hope too. The world may not understand a man who orders his life around God and spends himself for his wife, his children, and his neighbor. That is okay. When He is revealed, everyone will know whose we are, and they will finally understand.
This week, pick one Beatitude and hold it up as a mirror. Ask where the family resemblance is growing in you and where it is still faint. Then ask one of the saints who lived that Beatitude well to pray for you. They were not different kinds of people. They were children of the same Father who simply kept saying yes.
All you holy men and women, pray for us.
