Sunday the 2nd of November 2025 - All Saints

Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14/ Ps 24(23)/ 1 John 3:1-3/ Matthew 5:1-12a

The feast of All Saints is usually celebrated on the 1^st of November but this year it is transferred to today. All Saints is a designated Holy Day of Obligation requiring us to attend Mass on that day. Our Bishops have decided to transfer the celebration from Saturday to Sunday. This makes life easier for us in that we are not obliged to attend Mass on Saturday for the Feast Day and Sunday for our usual weekly obligation. This had me thinking about what it is to be a saint. I do not think that making life easier is part of what makes a person a saint, quite the opposite in most cases. While being grateful to our bishops for making life easier for us we must never forget that most of our named saints are examples of heroically faithful lives that meant they did not always find life easy.

The church refers to saints in various ways but they all represent how we are united to Jesus. When we think of a saint we usually think of one of the named saints who have been declared by the Church to have taken their place in heaven. The church also recognises every person who has been united with Christ through the sacrament of baptism. This includes those of us living on earth now, those who have died and are making their way to purity through purgatory, and all those known to us or unknown who have attained their places in the heavenly kingdom. Together we all make up the Communion of Saints, all linked to Jesus through baptism.

The second reading alludes to the fact that we are all saints. Through the love God poured out to us we are all children of God. What that means in fullness has not yet been revealed but when we attain heaven we will understand. We are destined to be like God because we will see him as he is and will become pure and perfect as God is perfect. This is an amazing thought but it refers back to the beginning when we are told that we have been created in the image and likeness of God. In our fallen human state we might feel far from that likeness but through baptism, the graces of the other sacraments, and the will of God we will be transformed into what God intended us to be. We are already saints as children of God but what we are to be transformed into in heaven is beyond our imagination.

Having understood that we are already saints though our union in Christ through baptism we must not sit back and do nothing. We must take the examples given to us by the lives of the known and canonised saints in order to begin our transformation to the perfection to come. The mention of saint might conjure up images of a perfect person, never doing any wrong, constantly at prayer, and in perfect harmony with God, the world, and those around us. This would be a standard too high for us to attain in this life and fortunately not a real example of most of our canonised saints. Many of these saints who lived down the ages were very human, very flawed people even though there was something heroic or special about their faith lives. What they give us are examples of how to begin the great transformation from being a fallen human in this life to reaching perfection in the next.

There are many examples of saints who have lived very human lives but even so have given outstanding examples of how to live in this world. We can start with the Apostles, the twelve men originally chosen in person by Jesus to found his church on earth upon. They were predominantly simple uneducated men with their own individual human traits. Peter, the man chosen by Jesus to be the first leader of the Christian community, was impetuous, and even denied knowing Jesus in his time of most need. Thomas was full of doubt needing to see things with his own eyes before believing them. James and John the brothers who wanted the best places next to Jesus in heaven. All very human, very flawed people but all played an outstanding part in the building up of the Church from the beginning. This was something they did not achieve on their own. It was through the power of the Holy Spirit coming to them at Pentecost that they were able to overcome their fears, come out of hiding, and proclaim the message of salvation despite the threat of arrest, torture, and execution. Take Paul as another example. He was actively pursuing the early Christians and was on his way to arrest some when he was confronted by Jesus in person. The voice he heard did not say why are you persecuting these people but why are you persecuting me? Jesus took an active enemy of his followers, confronted him directly, and converted him dramatically. Paul became the Apostle to the gentiles and his teachings are as relevant to us today as they were at the beginning. Paul was not able to achieve all that he did without the power of the Holy Spirit working with and through him.

There are countless numbers of saints down the ages who do not always give the best example of human behaviour but show us how God can work with and through us to achieve his plan. They are given as examples to us of how to live out our calling through baptism to become saints ourselves. They do not set standards that are out of reach, they show us how to submit to the will of God, how to let God achieve his purposes through us and with our cooperation. We can join the great multitude who have washed our robes clean in the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God. In the Gospel passage Jesus tells us who are the saints in this world, the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those seeking righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, peacemakers, those persecuted for the cause of righteousness, those who are reviled and persecuted for sake of Jesus. These are not standards that cannot be reached, they are human situations that we face on a daily basis. These are the simple everyday ways in which we fulfil the sainthood that we are called to.

We are part of the Communion of Saints in which there is a significant interaction between the Church in heaven and the Church on earth. The Holy Spirit binds us all together, those still here on earth, those making their way through purgatory, and those who have attained heaven. Let us today take the examples of the saints that speak into those situations we find ourselves in our own lives. Pray that they intercede for us so that we will reach the perfection that they have attained in the knowledge that by submitting to God’s will anything is possible.

God Bless Brendan.