Without spot or wrinkle: sermon on the feast of All Saints
By St Bernard of Clairvaux | 29 October 2025
Slightly abridged
1. There are three states of holy souls: the first, while still in a corruptible body; the second, without the body; the third, when the body is already glorified.
The first is a state of warfare, the second of rest, the third of consummated blessedness; the first is in tents, the second in courts, the third in the house of God.
“How lovely are your tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!” (Ps 83[84]:2) — but much more desirable are your courts, as the Psalm adds: “My soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord.” Yet, since even in those courts there is still, as you hear, some faintness, blessed indeed are they who dwell in your house, O Lord.
Truly I rejoiced at what was said to me, brothers: “We shall go into the house of the Lord.” (Ps 121:1)
And if you ask how I can presume to say this so confidently, it is surely because many of ours already stand in the courts, waiting until they receive back their bodies, until the number of their brethren be fulfilled.
For into that most blessed house they will not enter without us, nor without their bodies — that is, neither the saints without the people, nor the spirits without the flesh. It would not be fitting that perfect beatitude be granted until the whole man, body and soul together, receives it; nor that the Church be perfected while still incomplete.
Therefore, when the souls of the martyrs desired the resurrection of their bodies, they received the divine answer (as we mentioned in the former sermon): “Rest a little while longer, until the number of your brethren be complete.” (Rev 6:11)
They have already received each a white robe, yet they will not be clothed in the double garment until we too are clothed — as the Apostle says of the patriarchs and prophets: “God has provided something better for us, that without us they should not be made perfect.” (Heb 11:40)
The first robe is the happiness and rest of the soul; the second, the immortality and glory of the body.
Hence they cry out: “Avenge, O Lord, the blood of your saints that has been shed” (Rev 6:10) — not out of thirst for vengeance, nor from zeal for their own vindication, but from a holy longing for the resurrection and glorification of their bodies, which they know must be deferred until the day of judgment.
2. But whence comes this to you, O wretched flesh — foul, decaying, and unclean? How is it that the holy souls, marked with the image of God and redeemed by His own blood, desire you and wait for you, and that without you their joy cannot be complete, their glory perfected, or their beatitude fulfilled?
So strong indeed is in them this natural longing that their whole affection cannot yet freely soar to God, but is, as it were, drawn downward and contracted, wrinkled, by their desire for you.
Therefore blessed John, who by the Spirit revealed to us many things about that state in which the holy souls rest happily, says: “They are without spot before the throne of God.” (Rev 14:5)
Without spot, I say — but not yet without wrinkle; for that will be only when Christ shall present to Himself a glorious Church, “not having spot or wrinkle”. (Eph 5:27)
Among those who still fight here below the Church is not yet without spot, for “no man is clean of stain, not even the child of one day upon the earth.” (Job 14:4) And that life, as blessed Job testifies, is a warfare (Job 7:1).
Among those, however, who rest beneath the altar of the Lord, the Church is already without spot, as the Psalm says: “Lord, who shall dwell in your tabernacle, or rest upon your holy mountain? He that walks without blemish.” (Ps 14]:1–2)
He therefore shall rest upon the mountain of the Lord who enters without spot; but he who shall be without wrinkle will be exalted above the mountain itself.
And if you wish to know when the holy souls shall be without wrinkle, it will be when “the heavens are stretched out like a skin” (Ps 103:2) — that is, when they are wholly expanded so that not the least wrinkle is found in them; surely then, when they shall follow the Lamb wherever He goes.
For the souls that must follow the Lamb must indeed be stretched and enlarged. And where does the Lamb go? “He reaches from end to end mightily, and disposes all things sweetly.” (Wis 8:1)
3. Do you still wish to know whither the Lamb goes, and whither the blessed souls must needs follow Him? “In all things I sought rest,” says Wisdom (Sir 24:11).
This truly is the rest of the Lord — not broken or limited to any one thing, for He rejoices in all, delights in all, seeks and finds His rest in all. He loves mercy and judgment; He takes pleasure not only in the glory of the good, but even, as being just, in the punishment of the wicked.
Do you think that the human soul can enter into this joy of its Lord, into this His rest — so as itself to delight in all things, no longer drawn by private affection, but passing into a universal and divine love?
It can indeed, if it is found faithful in the little things committed to it during the time of its warfare — that is, faithful in governing its own members, senses, and appetites, which it has received to rule, that it may be proved faithful to its Lord.
Let the servant of Christ know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and to glorify and bear God in his body; and doubt not that the generous Lord will set His faithful servant over many things.
Over many indeed — for He will make him “master of His house and ruler over all His possessions.” (Mt 24:47)
Think it not incredible, brethren, as though I spoke of myself; for the Truth Himself plainly promises this, and of His promise there can be no doubt: “Blessed is that servant whom, when his Lord comes, He shall find so doing. Amen, I say to you, He will set him over all His goods.” (Mt 24:46–47)
Then indeed the faithful servant is placed over all the goods of his Lord, when he merits to enter into His joy, to rejoice with Him thenceforth in all things, to be glad in all, and to find delight in all.
For, as the Apostle testifies, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” (1 Cor 6:17)
And his will, cleaving wholly to the divine will, becomes one with it, so that nothing contrary to it is found in all creation; but all things are, or rather remain, according to his desire.
4. This, then, is the blessed hope which the holy souls await. And although they already abound in thanksgiving for the felicity in which they rest, yet they still pray and cry to God for the consummation which they expect.
Therefore, just as we said that they are without the spot of old sin but not yet without the wrinkle of longing, so they have reached thanksgiving but not yet the full voice of praise; for perfect praise befits only the perfect, and that shall be when God is “glorified in His inheritance,” when they too shall praise Him together, and each shall receive praise from God. (1 Cor 4:5)
Hence the Prophet uses the future tense with precision: “Blessed are they who dwell in your house, O Lord; they shall praise you for ever and ever.” (Ps 83:5)
Likewise, blessed John in the Apocalypse heard not a voice of praise but rather a voice of prayer: “I heard the voices of those slain beneath the altar.” And what did they cry? “Avenge, O Lord, the blood of your saints that has been shed.” (Rev 6:9-10)
This is the voice of supplication, not of praise.
But why do we still linger at a distance around that altar, afraid to draw near? I think, brethren, that your charity longs to hear the mystery of this altar and to know the sacred and hidden secret it contains.
Yet who am I that I should dare rashly to break into the chamber of the saints as a presumptuous searcher? For have I not read that “he who searches into majesty shall be overwhelmed by glory” (Prov 25:27)?
Nevertheless, let us pause here today, if you please, and perhaps, as we knock, the holy souls who dwell beneath that altar may deign to open to us some part of its mystery — not by our merit, but for the sake of Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His blood — recognising us also as fellow-citizens and members of the household of God, not as strangers and foreigners who should be shut out from that secret dwelling.