All Saints Day 2023
After this I had a vision of a great multitude,
which no one could count,
from every nation, race, people, and tongue.
They stood before the throne and before the Lamb,
wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.
They cried out in a loud voice:
"Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne,
and from the Lamb."
—Revelation 7:9-10
When I was around 12 years old, I discovered a book that literally changed my life: a St. Joseph’s Daily Missal. This prayer book (which I found tucked safely away in a cedar chest in my grandparents’ home in East Tennessee) was a common sight in Catholic parishes in the 1950s and was the resource for lay Catholics who wanted to take part in the pre-Vatican II liturgy. While there wasn’t anything special about that particular book, I discovered a new world in its pages—a world populated by saints from all times and places. I read about those who had personally known Jesus, early Christian martyrs, monarchs and peasants, monks and bishops, nuns and holy women who had consecrated their lives to Christ. I read prayers written in their honor. All of this touched me in a profound way and I found myself on a journey of discovery and faith that, despite many twists and turns, I’m still on today.
Each year, as we approach Halloween and the Solemnity of All Saints (November 1), I find myself thinking back to those early experiences of learning about—and praying with—the saints. I also find that there is something fitting about setting aside a specific date each year to remember and celebrate all those who are now with God in heaven (both the remembered and the long-forgotten).
In exploring the origins of this feast, liturgists and Church historians remind us that All Saints Day was originally a celebration that honored the early martyrs, and, as a celebration of the martyrs, it was fundamentally a celebration of the Paschal Mystery—the passion and death, Resurrection, and glorification of Jesus. The martyrs had reason to hope and found the faith and courage to face death, knowing that death was not the end, but only the beginning. And, of course, they were correct.
As I think about All Saints Day—even knowing the history and theology—I recognize another simple, but equally true aspect of this celebration: this is the day when each of us as Church can take a moment and reflect and look at one another and say, Yes, this is right because this is who we are.
We get a hint of this “rightness” in the First Letter of John: “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called children of God. Yet so we are… Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope based on him makes themselves pure, as he is pure” (3:1, 3). All Saints Day is the time to celebrate those women and men of faith who were not all that different from each of us, but who tried (sometimes quite imperfectly) and still persevered in their commitment to live in and for God. But it is also the time for us to relish the promise and process of becoming that which each of us is invited to become as a follower of Jesus Christ.
Rejoice for all the saints today;
Who ran by faith the narrow way:
The great and low together stand
With glory crowned at God’s right hand.
How blest are those who wrought the peace;
As heirs they share the Victor’s feast;
And prophets by injustice slain
Have claimed the Kingdom’s righteous reign.
Come, ye martyrs red and virgins white,
With teachers wise and students bright,
All wives and husbands, monks and nuns,
With bishops, priests, and deacons, come.
Come, holy men and women all;
With heart and voice sing praise and call
To Christ who rose triumphantly
That we may join your company.
—Harry Hagan, O.S.B., “Rejoice for All the Saints” in Awake My Soul: Hymns for Days and Season
One of the reasons that the saints are so inspiring and captivating is because each is a unique person, with an individual personality, way of engaging God and the world, and each is as much a mixed bag of grace and sin, strength and weakness as any of us. In the end, however, all of these individuals achieved a special union with God by keeping their attention fixed on greater truths than those offered by the world.
They said “Yes.”
They risked change.
They became holy.
This dynamic is opened up for us as we hear the Beatitudes proclaimed during the Mass each year on All Saints Day. In a sense, the Church is reminding us that authentic holiness must be lived out in ways that touch the very core of who we are. This is how the saints changed the world in ways from which we still benefit today.
All Saints Day reminds us that we need to hear their stories because they tell us exactly what it means to live a life of discipleship and how beautiful that life can be. But they also remind us that discipleship has a cost—even the most cursory reading of the lives of the early saints and more recent martyrs shows us that the Christian life places burdens upon us and that sometimes faith can demand everything of us. And this is where we can begin to unlock the “secret” of the saints: they are Christians who do something with their faith, who put their faith into practice in dynamic ways that change the world around them. And these changes weren’t always the grand sorts of signs and wonders that we like our saints to perform. Usually, their dynamic faith was lived out in the most mundane aspects of life, moment to moment, day to day.
Think about it. Even if we take all the stories that we know of the most beloved saints, like Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Teresa of Kolkata, or Saint Oscar Romero, we quickly realize that those tales give us only the faintest hint of what their daily lives were like. And just as our lives can never really be summed up in a single moment or experience, their lives were a succession of moments in which they chose, again and again, to try to want more, to try to be more, and to try keep their attention focused on a way of living and loving that was bigger than they could ever hope to become.
Almighty ever-living God,
by whose gift we venerate in one celebration
the merits of all the Saints,
bestow on us, we pray,
through the prayers of so many intercessors,
an abundance of the reconciliation with you
for which we earnestly long.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.
-Collect for the Solemnity of All the Saints
