Solemnity of All Saints
When I was in Catholic elementary school as a young girl, I remember the teacher one day asking the class who would like to be a saint. I recall that not many, if any, hands were raised in response to that question, and I struggled with it myself. I knew I had the desire to be a saint, but to acknowledge that in front of a class of my peers was just too uncomfortable for me. So I didn’t raise my hand, and I felt badly about it, but was too shy or insecure to admit it. She then went on to explain that if we hoped to go to heaven then we really were hoping to be saints. I think that even many adults have the idea that to be a saint you have to practically be perfect, or at least “very, very holy,” in an unattainable kind of way. That is probably why I was particularly drawn to St Therese of Lisieux, not only because she seemed more real and “human” by the fact that there were actual photographs of her, including in her childhood, but also because she “achieved” sainthood through the simple way of doing everything with love. I learned that we are all called to be saints and that those who have “died in the Lord” and are sharing in God’s glory are part of the communion of saints, even if they haven’t been canonized.
Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of All Saints, which gives us the opportunity to reflect on and celebrate the wonderful many and diverse examples of living a life devoted to Christ and the gospel. As I have gotten older, I have come to appreciate more and more the Litany of Saints sung at Easter Vigil, realizing that as written in today’s first reading from the book of Revelation (7: 2-4, 9-14), with God is a “great multitude which no one could count, from every nation, race, people and tongue,” some which we can name, and others that we cannot name. The reading is meant to encourage us Christians here on earth to persevere to the end, even to death.
We receive further encouragement in today’s second reading (1 John 3: 1-3) which reminds us that we are called the children of God and “what we shall be has not yet been revealed…when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” As the old saying goes, “Please be patient, God isn’t finished with me yet!” Saints are not angels, in other words saints are human beings, and not even perfect humans, but as Robert Ellsburg, author of All Saints (daily reflections on saints, prophets, and witnesses for our time, which I highly recommend) writes, “The saints are those who, in some particular way, embody – literally incarnate – the challenge of faith in their time and place. In doing so, they open a path that others might follow.”(pg. 2)
Today’s gospel reading from Matthew (5: 1-12a) further encourages us as Christians on a path to holiness, with the Beatitudes. I notice that I have read and heard them so often that I have to slow myself down to really pay attention to the words of the Beatitudes. They are encouraging, challenging and comforting. And the passage ends with the call to “Rejoice and be glad for your reward will be great in heaven.” May we look forward to truly rejoicing one day in heaven with the communion of saints!
So, today we remember and celebrate the saints named and unnamed and ask them to help guide us on the path of holiness that we particularly are called to in our humanity and in our specific lives in this time and place.
-Eileen Miller