Feast of All Saints

"Today the Church takes time to celebrate the feast of all the saints in Heaven. When we consider all the saints, of course, we normally think about the saints whose names are known to all of us, the great heroes of our Faith, the ones we can hold up as an example for everybody to be able to see what the Christian life is to be. Yet, we know at the same time, from the vision of Saint John, that he did not only see three or four thousand people - the canonized saints - but rather, he saw a multitude of people from every language, nation, race and people. It was a countless number. And so we understand, then, that there are many thousands of saints who are unknown to most people. They have lived their lives. They have "fought the fight", they have "run the race", as Saint Paul says. They have kept the Faith. And the merited crown that awaited them has now been awarded to them. Their names may not be known to us on earth, but they are known in the Book of Life in Heaven. These are the people, now, who glorify God for eternity. But these are the same ones who glorified God in their lives. Maybe they were not the ones who were outstanding, heroic persons; but rather, they were the ordinary saints, as opposed to the extraordinary ones - the ordinary saints, like you and me. They were the ones who were husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, the ones who were students, the ones who did their work in the way that God wanted them to.

We stop to ask ourselves: "How does one become a saint?" It begins, as we hear in the Book of Revelation, by being sealed with the seal of the living God. Each one of us has received that seal; each one of us has been baptized into Jesus Christ, and the seal of the living God has been placed upon us. From the day that you are baptized, and for the rest of eternity, there is a seal, a mark, upon your soul. It will be evident, both in Heaven and in hell, who was baptized. It will be very clear who has the seal of the living God.

But it is not enough just to say, "I am baptized, therefore, I am going to Heaven." It does not work that way. We know that we can lose grace. We know that we can fall away from God. We need, then, to ask ourselves: "What is next?" We need to strive for holiness. Saint John tells us in the second reading today that we are going to be like Christ. "What we will be," he says, "has not yet come to light, but we know that when it does we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is." We will be molded to Christ; we will be transformed into Christ. But that transformation begins now. If we are going to live a good Christian life, even just to truly call ourselves Christian people, it means that we need to have time set aside every single day for prayer, that we need to be developing that relationship with Jesus Christ, that we need to become more like Him in our day-to-day lives.

What would that look like? That looks just like the Beatitudes; that is the life of Christ encapsulated in nine little statements. That is what we need to be about: striving for that kind of holiness. But, on a practical level, to be a saint is very simple: it is to pray every day, it is to live a moral life, it is to stay very close to the Sacraments: to get to Mass, to get to Confession regularly. But in the day-to-day, minute-to-minute lives that we are all called to live, to be a saint is all encapsulated in one little term: obedience. It is just that simple: obedience to the duties of our state in life and to do those duties with the greatest amount of love that we can do them with. In doing that we will be saints.

To say that we are to be obedient to the duties of our state in life is to be obedient, first and foremost, to our baptismal vows, where we rejected Satan and we said "yes" to God. That encapsulates those points that I have already mentioned: to pray, to live a moral life, to frequent the Sacraments. For those who are married, it is to be faithful to your marriage vows - completely faithful to them -loving that other person (whom you sometimes do not feel like loving very much) and making sure that you are placing that person as the priority, pouring yourself out for your children, as well. And for the children, that means being obedient to your parents. It means being the best student that you can be, doing your work to the best of your ability - not complaining, not whining, not throwing your books on the floor and doing things like that, not putting them in your backpack and telling Mom that you already did your homework when you really did not. It means to do your chores. It means to clean your room and do all the things you are expected to do, and to do it in the best way that you can do it. So, again, that means willingly and even joyfully, not kicking and screaming, not complaining. And that does not only go for the kids, that goes for the adults as well. All the duties of our state in life, not to kick and moan and scream about them, but to accept them and to offer that up in union with Christ. It is to mold ourselves to be like Him.

So when we think about it, we have these extraordinary saints, the ones whose names we all know, and we could say that, in essence, they are like Our Lord in His public life. These are the ones who did great things. God worked miracles through them. He used them to bring conversions of many thousands of people, sometimes. He preached through them. He touched people's lives through them. But most people are not going to be that way. That was only three years of Our Lord's life. What happened for the first thirty? They were hidden.

And so if you think about it, a very small percentage of the Christian population is going to be extraordinary saints. The vast majority is going to be likened to the hidden life of Christ. They are going to be the unknown saints - but people who are in love with Jesus Christ, people who are striving in their day-to-day lives to live the Faith that they profess. That is what we are called to, each and every one of us. If God wants us to be extraordinary saints, then we need to be obedient to that and do His Will. But for most, He is calling us to live like that hidden life, to live a family life, to live a life of heroic love shown in little things. That is the way that Christ is asking each of us to become a saint: to do what we are supposed to do in the best way that we can. And in that we will be molded into Jesus Christ in this life so that we will be prepared to become like Him in the next, to see Him face-to-face and be transformed into Christ, to be one of those who have indeed survived the period of great trial and have washed our robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."

-- From a homily by Fr Robert Altier, ocds (1 November 2001)

Love is the way to peace and harmony

"What does God desire of us today? What struggles must we endure to ensure the victory of God in our fragmented and highly secular reality, one that is gradually forgetting its God? It is not policies, or politics, or programmes or even economics that will change the world we live in. What can silently touch hearts and bring it peace but God’s love shining through our human weakness! It is the power of holiness. This little saint enables us to perceive a little way to holiness that is accessible. It is obvious that Thérèse still speaks to our world. Just look around you. Unlike a pilgrimage to a holy place, she has come to visit us. What mysterious rose might be handed to us today? Thérèse was aware of her weaknesses. St. Paul reminds us “when I am weak then I am strong.” Our saints are those who surrender to God’s merciful love. Love is the way to peace and harmony – there is no other way."


-- From a homily by Fr John Keating, OCarm, on the occasion of the visit of the relics of St. Thérèse to Aylesford Priory, England

Maintain the true traditions of an interior life to produce holiness

"...[W]here tradition of a true interior life is allowed to lapse, we see that the succession of holy souls begins to fail. Outwardly, we all may be well; the discipline, good; the zeal, unabated; but through the loss of the tradition no real progress is made. After twenty and thirty years in religion souls in such Houses may be heard to complain that they are almost where they were at the beginning of their conversion to God. They have unwittingly moved in a vicious circle.

This, we believe, is too often the true explanation why many reforms in more recent times have been without much real fruit. The reform has begun and ended with exterior discipline and observances, and these, however brave a show they may make, have in themselves but little power to effect a true interior reformation of life, without which the exterior appearance of virtue is of little worth. The remedy in all such cases is to take up the thread where it was broken: to go back to the point where outstanding holiness ceased, and to resume the old interior spirit, teaching, and tradition; and doubtless, the fruit of such a course will soon become apparent.

Where the tradition of a real interior life, from which alone holiness proceeds, has been carefully preserved and handed down in a community, a great responsibility rests on the shoulders of each succeeding generation to maintain it intact and to deliver it to those who shall come after them. Thus St Teresa finds fault with those who say, if only I lived at the beginning of the foundation, I should have been all right; I too would have become holy. For though it is true that where the teaching is fresh at the fountain-head the prospect of becoming holy is best; 'yet we should remember,' the Saint goes on to say, 'that we also are the foundations to those who come after us; and if we who are now living had not fallen away from the fervour of our predecessors, and if those who succeed us should not do the like, the building would always continue firm and immovable... The excuse we make in not belonging to the first beginnings is quite ridiculous, for we consider not the difference there is between our life and virtue, and the life of those saints on whom God bestowed such great favours.' That is so; hence the Religious House that maintains the true traditions of an interior life will continue to produce outstanding scholars of holiness."

-- Dom Benedict Weld-Blundell, osb

Sanctity made easy

"I believe that if those souls that tend towards sanctity were instructed as to the conduct they ought to follow, they would be spared a good deal of trouble. I speak as much of people in the world as of others. If they could realise the merit concealed in the actions of each moment of the day: I mean in each of the daily duties of their state of life, and if they could be persuaded that sanctity is founded on that to which they give no heed as being altogether irrelevant, they would indeed be happy. If, besides, they understood that to attain the utmost height of perfection, the safest and surest way is to accept the crosses sent them by Providence at every moment, that the true philosopher’s stone is submission to the will of God which changes into divine gold all their occupations, troubles, and sufferings, what consolation would be theirs! What courage would they not derive from the thought that to acquire the friendship of God, and to arrive at eternal glory, they had but to do what they were doing, but to suffer what they were suffering, and that what they wasted and counted as nothing would suffice to enable them to arrive at eminent sanctity: far more so than extraordinary states and wonderful works. O my God! how much I long to be the missionary of Your holy will, and to teach all men that there is nothing more easy, more attainable, more within reach, and in the power of everyone, than sanctity. How I wish that I could make them understand that just as the good and the bad thief had the same things to do and to suffer; so also two persons, one of whom is worldly and the other leading an interior and wholly spiritual life have, neither of them, anything different to do or to suffer; but that one is sanctified and attains eternal happiness by submission to Your holy will in those very things by which the other is damned because he does them to please himself, or endures them with reluctance and rebellion. This proves that it is only the heart that is different. Oh! all you that read this, it will cost you no more than to do what you are doing, to suffer what you are suffering, only act and suffer in a holy manner. It is the heart that must be changed. When I say heart, I mean will. Sanctity, then, consists in willing all that God wills for us. Yes! sanctity of heart is a simple “fiat,” a conformity of will with the will of God.

What could be more easy, and who could refuse to love a will so kind and so good? Let us love it then, and this love alone will make everything in us divine."

-- Abandonment to Divine Providence by Jean-Pierre de Caussade, SJ

Don't pass the buck! -respond to the call to holiness

"We all probably know in some way that we're called to holiness bur perhaps struggle to respond. Feeling the challenge of the call and yet seeing the obstacles, it is easy to rationalize delaying or compromising and avoid a wholehearted and immediate response.

It is not uncommon, for examole, to 'pass the buck' to others whom we deem in a better position to respond wholeheartedly. Those of us who are Catholic lay people often look at our busy lives and sluggish hearts and suppose that priests and nuns are in a better position to respond to the call. After all, we may think to ourselves, that's what we pay them for! We may think that when our kids are grown, or when we retire, or after a business crisis passes, or when we don't have to care for ailing parents, or when we get a better job, or when we get married, or ... that then we'll be in a better position to respond.

Unfortunately, being a priest or nun doesn't eliminate temptations to also 'pass the buck.' With the reduction in numbers, it is understandably easy for priests and nuns to feel overwhelmed by their responsibilities and have such a busy pace of life that they might suppose that it's the cloistered orders who are truly in a good position to respond wholeheartedly to the call to holiness.

But even in cloistered orders, it's possible to rationalize and 'pass the buck.' What with caring for guests, overseeing building renovations, attending monastic conferences, or making cheese, bread, or jams, it's possible to suppose that it's the hermit who really can respond wholeheartedly.

But even being a hermit doesn't guarantee such a response. After all, hermits need to work out a rule of life, have meetings with superiors to review it, make sure their medical insurance is covering them properly, deal with internal and external distractions and temptations, and maybe even contribute to a newsletter for hermits!

What really holds us back from a wholehearted response to the call of Jesus, of Vatican II, of the repeated urgings of the Spirit, is not really the external cirumstances of our lives, but the interior sluggishness of our hearts. We need to be clear that there will never be a better time or a better set of circumstances than now to respond wholeheartedly to the call to holiness. Who knows how much longer we'll be alive on this earth? We don't know how long we'll live or what the future holds. Now is the acceptable time. The very things we think are obstacles are the very means God is giving us to draw us to depend more deeply on Him."

-- The Fulfillment of All Desire by Ralph Martin

Open your heart to the love of God: the gift of holiness is offered to all the baptized

"It is prayer which roots us in this truth. It constantly reminds us of the primacy of Christ and, in union with him, the primacy of the interior life and of holiness. When this principle is not respected, is it any wonder that pastoral plans come to nothing and leave us with a disheartening sense of frustration? We then share the experience of the disciples in the Gospel story of the miraculous catch of fish: "We have toiled all night and caught nothing" (Lk 5:5). This is the moment of faith, of prayer, of conversation with God, in order to open our hearts to the tide of grace and allow the word of Christ to pass through us in all its power: Duc in altum! On that occasion, it was Peter who spoke the word of faith: "At your word I will let down the nets" (ibid.). As this millennium begins, allow the Successor of Peter to invite the whole Church to make this act of faith, which expresses itself in a renewed commitment to prayer."

-- Novo Millennio Ineunte by Pope John Paul II

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Read the entire Apostolic Letter here.

The call to holiness

Holiness is not a luxury. It is not the privilege of a few, something impossible for the normal person. [Holiness] is the common destiny of all people called to be children of God. It is the universal vocation of all the baptized."
-- Pope Benedict XVI