In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
The Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion and burial is the event which created the Christian Church as it still is. Living in the joy of the living Christ, praying to the Father through him in the power of the Holy Spirit; receiving his Body and Blood in the sacrament of the Eucharist, facing death by knowing that the Lord has already pioneered the way through; it did not take the early Christians long to figure out that they had many good friends on the other side with the Lord in heaven. We know that from earliest times Christians prayed and celebrated the Mass at the tombs of the martyrs and kept the anniversaries of what they called their “birthdays into heaven.” There are traces in those days as well of an all-inclusive festival, a feast of All Saints, which dates at least as early as the feast of Christmas.
All Saints Day is one of the principal feasts of the Book of Common Prayer. It takes precedence over any other day or observance, and it may also be observed, as we do at Saint Thomas, on the Sunday following the actual feast day, November 1. Let us take a few minutes this afternoon to savor the various graces of this great festival.
All baptized people, by virtue of the fact of baptism, are joined to Christ and are called to be saints. Writing to some of his churches, the Apostle Paul often addresses the entire membership as “the saints.”
There are, by common recognition and indeed by official process of canonization, capital “S” saints. Our Lady Saint Mary, Saints Peter and Paul, Saint John. Saint Thomas the Apostle, our Patron. Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Thomas Becket. Saint Teresa of Avila and St. Therese of Lisieux. Too many to name and to celebrate one by one, which is a reason why there is an All Saints Day. Yet the capital “S” saints, who make up what we could fairly call the Church’s Hall of Fame, show the triumphs of Christ over space and time in his faithful servants. God was incarnate in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh. In a subordinate way, Christ is made manifest in the lives of those who give their lives to him in their various degrees and stations. Thereby they reach out to us. As the children’s hymn says, “One was a soldier and one was a priest, and one was slain by a fierce wild beast. You meet them in school or in lanes or at sea, in church, or in trains, or in shops or at tea.” Yes indeed, “For the saints of God are just folk like me, and I mean to be one too.” These saints give us their examples, their prayers and their fellowship.
It didn’t take long for the Church to realize there was room in the All Saints festival for more, for those who, like you and me, are works in progress. Be patient; God isn’t finished with me yet. Well, most of us die in that state, as “works in progress.” The Church decided to keep the day after All Saints as All Souls Day, when prayers were offered for all the faithful departed, so that the good work that had begun in them would be made perfect in the Day of Jesus Christ. It is right to extend this love and charity to all the departed, whether they knew and professed Christ or not. Why? Because all truth and goodness and grace belong to the Word of God, to Christ who is the way, the truth and the life, and all truth and goodness therefore point to and are owned by Christ. Prayer for the departed doesn’t ask for a “second chance.” Still less does it mean some sort of re-incarnation. Not at all. It means prayer that all good things in all souls will be brought to their source and perfection in the Day of Jesus Christ. The Resurrection gives us this ground of hope. There is a continuum running all the way from our Lady Saint Mary, the Mother of God, in whom was the beginning of the Incarnation, who personifies the Church and who is at the heart of the communion of the faithful, all the way to those who simply desire to move from darkness into light, to know the truth which will make them free. The continuum is Christ Jesus, who is himself the communion of saints.
To strive to become a saint, strange as it may sound, means to strive to be your true self, the man, woman or child God made you to be. Sin is not really proper to that true person. Think: does sin enhance or diminish me? When you are cruel, or you lie, or you betray or you take what is not yours, do you enrich or impoverish yourself? When you are kind, or you tell the truth even when it hurts, or you are brave and loyal, or you are generous, what happens; do you not grow in virtue and strength, in becoming “the real you”? Christ, the true Human Being, died and rose again so that we could be free to grow into this full stature. That is why the word, saint, is a name that is meant for each one of us.
May our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Saints, lead us in our earthly pilgrimage, and bring our works in progress to their perfection in the communion of his saints.
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
