The Present of the Saints, Our Glorious Future!

 (Homily for the Solemnity of All Saints)

          As we celebrate all the saints today both canonized and non-canonized, we prefigure the celebration in heaven. Today’s feast reminds us of the continuity and unity between the pilgrim church on earth and the triumphant church in heaven. The solemnity of All Saints is for each and every one of us an invitation and a reminder to holiness of life, which is the vocation of all the baptized. Our Eucharistic celebration today begins (Entrance Antiphon) with the invitation to joy, which the Church as Mother and Teacher directs to all of us, thus:

 

                                            Let us all rejoice in the Lord, as we celebrate the feast day in honour of all the Saints, at whose festival the Angels rejoice and praise the Son of God.

 

    In today’s first reading (Ap. 7:2-4.9-14), John recounts a vision he received about that heavenly celebration of the saints. The words of Apocalypse 7:9-10 are illuminating: “I saw a huge number, impossible to count, of people from every nation, race, tribe and language; they were standing in front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palms in their hands. They shouted aloud, “victory to our God, who sits on the throne and to the Lamb”. And he was equally told why they are in heaven, “These are the people who have been through the great persecution, and they have washed their robes white again in the blood of the Lamb” (Ap. 7:14). The saints in heaven were faithful to God despite the many hardships and persecutions they had to endure. Little wonder, they have been crowned and graced with white robes. The saints won victory over trials and tribulations through their collaboration with the grace of God. St. Paul captured the efficacy of divine grace when he opined that “what I am now I am through the grace of God” (1Cor 15:10).

    Furthermore, many a times, we are confronted with the question, “why do we pray through the saints?” We pray through the saints because they can help us on our sojourn towards heaven, because they are already there. John saw an earlier vision when he narrated that he “saw golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the saints” (Ap. 5:8). So they can intercede for us, and they do intercede for us. The prayers of the saints are powerful.

          A profound reflection on the Gospel passage (Mt 5:1-12) reveals that the saints are men and women of Beatitudes. Little wonder, at the heart of today’s Gospel the word “Blessed” was repeated for nine good times. The beatitudes are proclaimed by Jesus in a fascinating way. The choice of the Mount by Mathew for this sermon is in line with his conception of these sets of teachings as the new law, which corresponds with the old law given by Moses on Mount Sinai. For Mathew Jesus is the new law giver, the second Moses. Though for Luke the Sermon took place on the plain. Indeed, it has been often observed that the beatitudes describe the life of Christ himself. And as such, in connection to ‘All Saints” it denotes that all saints are those who manifested a Christ-like character as expressed in the beatitudes.

        Be that as it may, the road to sanctity or holiness is the road of the beatitudes. Spiritual poverty or humility and detachment from the things of this world, meekness and the rejection of every violence, bearing pains, thirst for justice, comprehension and mercy towards ones neighbour, purity of heart, spirit of peace: are the roads to holiness. And the saints we are celebrating today teach us by their exemplary life that it is a road that can be plied by all.

          However, we may ask a pertinent question thus: why are these categories of people proclaimed blessed by Jesus? Not because to them Jesus assured success and wealth, but they are blessed because the “Good News” of God’s kingdom has been announced to them, and they were disposed to welcome it, from here springs joy, happiness and blessedness. We too can be called blessed if we welcome the Good news and all that it comports, for by so doing we will be on the road to holiness.

          Interestingly, the second reading (1Jn 3:1-3), invites us to aspire to be where the saints are. So that, there present can become our future. He reminds us that heaven is our destination, and this is the first message emanating from this passage that we have to take to heart, “we are God’s children, but what we shall be in the future has not yet been revealed. We are well aware that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he really is” (v.2). As such, St. John enjoins us: “surely everyone who entertains this hope must purify himself, must try to be as pure as Christ” (1Jn 3:3).

          Above all else however, with the Solemnity of all Saints the Church draws our attention to few paramount messages:

►That Heaven is our destination, as St. John said, “Beloved we are now children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed we shall see Him as He is” (1Jn 3:2). Analogically, St. Paul expresses that “for now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face” (1Cor 13:12). Really the saints are beholding God face to face. And we hope to do same too!

►The second message comes from the first reading, the fact that we are all called to holiness. St. Peter affirms this when he vehemently posited: “this is the will of God: your sanctification” (1Pt 1:15-16). The conciliar document of Vatican II reminds us equally of this universal call to holiness (LG 40). We are not called to an exceptional holiness, rather we are all (the first reading talks about a great multitude from every nation, race, people and language) called to essential holiness. We pray that the Saints may continue to intercede for us on our journey of perfectibility, so that we too may become partakers of the saints in light!

May the Saints continue to intercede for us!! Amen!!!

(Fr. Vitus M. C. Unegbu, SC)