Solemnity of All Saints

Today's Scripture

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints Day. This Solemnity celebrates all of the Church’s Saints, both those we know about who have been formally canonized by the Church, and those we do not yet know about. The first reading for today from the Book of Revelation provides us with a magnificent glimpse into the heavenly life of the glorified Saints. This vision gives us hope of joining their numbers upon our own death and entrance into glory. An important part of this vision is found in 7:9 where we see the unity of God’s people, called from “every nation, race, people, and tongue.”

One of the beautiful aspects of the Church’s celebration of Saints is the wonderful diversity we see: some Saints are women, some are men, some were members of religious orders, some served the Church by working in the world, some were ordained for ministry, others worked ordinary jobs, some were married, others remained single, some were killed for their faith, others died because of diseases, some were world leaders, others remained in one small community for most of their life, some were missionaries abroad, others took care of the sick or poor. Regardless of our state in life, we can find Saints to relate to.

Too often we think of Saints only in terms of the clearly miraculous: bilocation, stigmata, mystical visions. Or else we think Sainthood is only intended for the few who do not have regular jobs or family lives. The second reading for today highlights what was one of the most important teachings of the Second Vatican Council, the universal call to holiness. We are all called to holiness. We are all called to become Saints. 1 John 3:1 makes clear that we are children of God. We became children of God at our baptism, and through our baptism we were called to become Saints. God loves us no matter what we’ve done and no matter what we’ll do. But the love God has bestowed on us (1 John 3:1) is such that He loves us too much to let us remain as we are; He wants to transform us to be like God (1 John 3:2). This idea, becoming a Saint, God-like, was summed up by the early Church’s expressions deification or divinization: through the Sacraments we participate in the very divine life of the Triune God, and are transformed by such participation.

Finally, if we truly wish to take up God’s call to become a Saint, we need to live out the final reading for today from the Gospel of St. Matthew. We need to live these Beatitudes. I would recommend looking through the lives of the Saints (either in book form or online) and finding a Saint or some Saints you think you can relate to. Perhaps you can begin to try to emulate some aspect of their life, and start asking for their intercession in your own life so that you can better live out the Beatitudes in today’s reading from St. Matthew’s Gospel. Each of the Saints is unique. The Saints are like prisms that reflect different aspects of the one Light which is Jesus. In the Saints we see Jesus working in different ways through different individuals. We too have Jesus’ divine Light shining in us. Let’s let the Light really shine so that we might become Saints, and help others become Saints as well. 

Jeff Morrow