This upcoming Saturday, November 1st, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of All Saints Day. It’s a reunion of a peculiar sort where all the guests of honor are already here, present to us in the great Communion of Saints, though most are invisible to our eyes.
As we celebrate the vast crowd of saints, from the serene Virgin Mary to the fiery Apostle Paul, from the gentle Francis of Assisi to our newly canonized saint, Carlo Acutis, it’s easy to feel a sense of distance. We might think, “Well, that’s for them. They were spiritual, super humans of holiness. I’m just me.” If that’s our thinking, we have missed the entire point of this glorious feast. All Saints Day is not just a day to admire the saints, but a day to hear again our own personal vocation, our baptismal name, which is this: You are called to be a saint. Yes, you and me.
In the Book of Revelation we read of the breathtaking vision of this saintly multitude: “a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue.” They stand before the throne of God, wearing white robes, holding palm branches. Who are they? The angel tells us: “These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
This is not a scene of a remote, elite spiritual club. This is the picture of the Church. This is a picture of us, and all who have gone before us, washed clean not by our own power, but by the grace of Jesus Christ. The saints are not people who never sinned; they are sinners who never stopped getting back up, who never stopped turning back to the Lamb, who allowed His grace to transform them.
In Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 5, we see Jesus taking His disciples up a high mountain and teaches them the way to sanctification, a blueprint to be holy, to be a saint: the Beatitudes. We are called to be saints not primarily in the dramatic, headline-grabbing moments, but in the ordinary, daily grind of our lives.
We are called to be poor in spirit: to recognize that we are not God, that we need Him in our every hour of our lives. Every step of the day for all our days.
We are called to mourn: to have hearts soft enough to be broken by the suffering of a family member, by the injustice in our world, by our own failures, trusting that God will bring comfort.
We are called to be meek: not weak, but power under control, choosing patience, humility, and service.
We are called to hunger and thirst for righteousness: to desire holiness as we desire food and drink, making time for prayer, the Sacraments, and for doing the right thing always.
We are called to be merciful: to forgive, to offer a kind word, to give encouragement and support.
We are called to be clean of heart: to seek God’s will in all our endeavors, to choose purity in our thoughts, to be simple and direct in our love for Him and for others.
We are called to be peacemakers: no just peace-lovers, but active agents of reconciliation in our families, healing divisions between friends, brining Christ’s calm into a world of conflict.
This is the message of Jesus from the mountain: the path to holiness. It is the path for each of us. The great Saint Therese of Lisieux called it the “Little Way” – doing small things with great love. For her, it was a smile offered to a grumpy nun. St. Ignatius of Loyola said to do all things for the glory of God. As we gaze upon the icons and statues of the saints, let us not see them as an unreachable standard. Let us see them as our family. Let us see in their faces the family likeness – the likeness of Christ – to which we, too, are called. They are the living proof that with God’s grace, it can be done. They are cheering for us, praying for us, and waiting to welcome us home.
After receiving the holy Eucharist at Mass leave with a new sense of your identity. You are not just Catholic. You are not just a parishioner. You are a saint-in-the-making. Your life, with all its joys and struggles, is the raw material for your sanctity. Do not be afraid of this call. Embrace it. For the God who calls you is the same God who will give you the grace to achieve it. The world has enough celebrities. It desperately needs more saints. And God is looking at you today, with love and with hope, grace and mercy. All Saints Day is the call for each of us to strive for holiness and become a living saint to all.
St. Jude, pray for us ~ Blessings and Joy,
Fr. Ryan