THE FEAST OF ALL SAINTS
We begin by sparing a thought for all those who lost their lives in Nice in southern France during the week that they may rest in peace and their families find consolation from those around them at this sad time.
This weekend we have the two feasts the feast of All Saints on Sunday and the feast of All Souls on Monday. On November 1st the Church celebrates all the saints: the multitude of those who are in heaven enjoying the beatific vision that are only known to God. During the early centuries the Saints venerated by the Church were all martyrs. Later the 1st November was set as the day for commemorating all the Saints. We all have this “universal call to holiness.” What must we to do in order to join the company of the saints in heaven? We “must follow in Jesus footsteps and try to practice what Jesus preached as we seek to do the will of the Father in all things throughout our lives.
When we try to do that the holiness of the People of God will grow into an abundant harvest of good, as is admirably shown by the life of so many saints in Church history” Among the saints in heaven are some people whom we have known such as Pope Saint John Paul or Padre Pio who both lived in the last 100 years. Padre Pio died in 1968 and of course John Paul died in 2005. But there are so many ordinary people who show us how to be saints by the way they lead their lives. After rejoicing with the saints on All souls Day we pray for all those who, await the day when they will join the company of saints. None of us, I feel sure, is aspiring or expecting to be a canonised saint. We don’t think that one day the pope will tell the world what saints we were. We don’t kid ourselves that our picture is going to pop up one day on the walls of churches. Not for a moment do we imagine anyone saying prayers to us or carrying around pieces of us as relics. We don’t foresee any statues of us being carried high in processions. But in its document on the Church, the Second Vatican Council wrote a chapter called ‘The Universal Call to Holiness’ and all of us Are called to be holy as our heavenly father is Holy.
A few days ago, on October 10th, a remarkable 15-year-old Italian teenager, named Carlo Acutis, who died of leukaemia in 2006, was declared ‘Blessed’ in the basilica of St Francis, Assisi. Carlo once said that his life project was ‘Jesus’. Surely, his beatification and our Feast this Sunday are reminders of our deep-down longings to become better people than we are already, and the best we can be with faith in god and one another ! Surely too they remind us that Jesus Christ can and will empower us to live what we believe, to practise what he preached!
Fullerton T 