A major milestone for Vatican II was the universal call to holiness. Saintliness is no longer the preserve of a few but it is an invitation to all the baptised. As such, All Saints Day makes more sense as it focuses on us. Why? Of what value is there for the Saints in heaven to commemorate All Saints Day? As they would say it here in this country, “shiok sendiri kah”? No, right? Instead, All Saints is for us to mark because as St Bernard of Clairvaux said, “Why should our praise and glorification, or even the celebration of this feast day mean anything to the saints? What do they care about earthly honours when their heavenly Father honours them by fulfilling the faithful promise of the Son? What does our commendation mean to them? The saints have no need of honour from us; neither does our devotion add the slightest thing to what is theirs. Clearly, if we venerate their memory, it serves us, not them. But I tell you, when I think of them, I feel myself inflamed by a tremendous yearning. Calling the saints to mind inspires, or rather arouses in us, above all else, a longing to enjoy their company, so desirable in itself. We long to share in the citizenship of heaven, to dwell with the spirits of the blessed, to join the assembly of patriarchs, the ranks of the prophets, the council of apostles, the great host of martyrs, the noble company of confessors and the choir of virgins. In short, we long to be united in happiness with all the saints”. (This long quotation is taken from today’s office of Reading).
We celebrate All Saints to remind us that each baptised faithful has a vocation to holiness. The path to holiness begins with this first step – the admission of our sins, and of our need for God’s transforming grace. The Saints cry out that salvation belongs to our God. And those who become saints constantly beg for God’s salvation. They have the privilege of seeing God’s face. In short, we should be aiming for heaven. As St Paul reminded the Philippians, “For us, our homeland is in heaven, and from heaven comes the Saviour we are waiting for, the Lord Jesus Christ, and He will transfigure these wretched bodies of ours into copies of His glorious body. He will do that by the same power with which He can subdue the whole universe”.
Today we come to celebrate the triumph of God’s grace in the lives of men and women, who were sinners like us but more than that we are also celebrating our potential possibility, meaning that we are reminded that if we cooperate with God’s grace, we who struggle through the difficulties of life can reach the everlasting glory of heaven. St Augustine said that God is glorified in His saints, and that when He crowns their merits and rewards them, then He is crowning the gift of grace which He has put in their hearts.
The grace that is ours is found in keeping the Beatitudes. As Jesus warned the Apostles, “If they hated me, they will hate you too”. Many of our saints bore their Cross and suffered through trials and tribulations and now they are enjoying the fruits of their faithfulness. We too can follow them by also keeping the Beatitudes.
Each one of us who decides to embrace the path of holiness must start with a personal and humble acknowledgement of our sinfulness, that is, we are sinners who long for God’s mercy and redemption. The Beatitudes thus bring us into our work, our kitchen, our Cathedral, our school, our room, our mall, our office. Holiness is found in places familiar and not in faraway places. And God’s response is always to fill us with his blessing, giving us a share in the very life of the Blessed One, so that – if we persevere in friendship with God – we might ourselves become Blessed, and join the company of his saints.
In conclusion, All Saints Day reminds us, firstly, of our divine destiny and it is the clarion call to holiness. Secondly, following the pattern of sacramental logic, the Church is the Sacrament of Jesus Christ as He as He is the Sacrament of God the Father—to have seen me is to have seen the Father. Analogically, we can say that the Saints are sacraments of holiness. If we aspire towards sanctity, how do we become holy? Perhaps All Saints Day, even though it commemorates the great multitude of unknown holiness, it is also for us to know individual saints apart from the favourite few—Theresa of Lisieux, Teresa of Calcutta, Pio of Pietrelcina, John Paul II, Carlos Acutis etc. How many of the Saints in the stained glass do you know? And of their lives? If humanity is represented by all shapes and sizes, saints too have all stripes and sorts. We have many examples to emulate. Perhaps it is time to read up and be inspired by them.
