Solemnity of All Saints

National Vocation Awareness Week (November 1-7)

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 25 Serious Faults

Mass: Rev 7:2-4, 9-14; Resp Ps 24; 1 Jn 3:1-3; Mt 5:1-12a 

Who can ascend the mountain of the Lord?

HEART OF JESUS, DELIGHT OF ALL THE SAINTS,

HAVE MERCY ON US.

Welcome to the great month of November. O sing out your joy to the Lord for praise is fitting for loyal hearts. 

The Preface in the November volume of Butler's Lives of the Saints begins with this: "November opens with the Solemnity of All Saints-the great festival of all who have made it through the vicissitudes of this present phase of our human existence and have reached the 'City of God'" (p. ix). Or as we sang in the Antiphon for the Canticle of Zechariah at Lauds: For theirs is the kingdom of heaven who, having lived and loved the earth, somehow were not of it; and having washed their robes in the blood of the lamb, have won the rewards of the kingdom. 

One may be inclined to think that today we celebrate only the saints who have been officially recognized by the Church, those already beatified and canonized. For example, any of the saints on the packed list of saints we celebrate during this month, those listed in yesterday's lectio post like Saint Martin of Tours, Saint Francis Xavier Cabrini, and Saint Gertrude the Great of Helfta. On the contrary, and as reminded by a friend, today we "remember all of those saints who are in heaven that we don't know about. The countless number of just good Christians throughout the centuries who are present to God and present to us in the Church, who are meant to be friends to us." The Saints "Next Door" in the words of Pope Francis in his Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate (6-9). As the Holy Father writes: "The Holy Spirit bestows holiness in abundance among God's holy and faithful people, for 'it has pleased God to make men and women holy and to save them, not as individuals without any bond between them, but rather as a people who might acknowledge Him in truth and serve Him in holiness'" (6). 

So these friends who are present to us and who we celebrate today are the "great multitude" (Rev 7:9) in Saint John's vision in the reading from the Book of Revelation. The great multitude which "no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue" (Rev 7:9). They have made it through the vicissitudes of this present phase of our human existence and are now standing before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. They cry out to us in a loud voice: "Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb" (Rev 7:10). They are cheering us on, to carry our crosses day in and day out with joy and rejoicing. They "are the ones who have survived the time of great distress" (Rev 7:14). These are the ones who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb (Rev 7:14). They knew distress, have carried their crosses throughout the centuries, and they help us now in this time of distress. This united Communion of Saints, those who have reached the "City of God" and are available to us in friendship, encourage us on the path to holiness. So "let the grace of your baptism bear fruit in a path to holiness. Let everything be open to God; turn to Him in every situation. Do not be dismayed, for the power of the Holy Spirit enables you to do this, and holiness, in the end, is the fruit of the Holy Spirit in your life" (Gaudete et Exsultate, 15). And "let us ask the Holy Spirit to pour out upon us a fervent longing to be saints for God's greater glory, and let us encourage one another in this effort. In this way, we will share a happiness that the world will not be able to take from us" (Gaudete et Exsultate, 177). After all, as the Pontiff writes: "God wants us to be saints and not to settle for a bland and mediocre existence" (1). Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven (Mt 5:12a). 

The saints in each generation, joined to those who have gone before and filled them with light, become a golden chain, in which each saint is a separate link, united to the next by faith and works and love. So in the one God they form a single chain which cannot quickly be broken.

(Saint Symeon the New Theologian)

HEART OF JESUS, HOPE OF ALL WHO DIE IN YOU,

HAVE MERCY ON US.

© Gertrude Feick 2020