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All Saints 2015
I love the feast of All Saints. I love reading about the saints. Some of them were extraordinary in
so many different ways. Some are very well known and some mostly forgotten. You already
know many stories from the great ones. There are lessons to be learned from the obscure as well.
Take St. Maximus of Turin for example, he was a contemporary of St. Augustine, and it was
thought at the time that future generations would consider his life and his literary works the
superior of St. Augustine’s: but they didn’t: which just shows you that picking a winner was just
as tough in the fifth century as it is today.
Then there was St. Ludger who was a bishop of Munster when Charlemagne was king. One day
he had an appointment with Charlemagne but kept the king waiting while he finished praying his
breviary. Well, this made Charlemagne angry and he gave Ludger a real tongue lashing about it.
Ludgar then said, “But Your majesty, when you appointed me bishop you said I should put the
service of God ahead of service to the king, didn’t you? “I said that?” responded Charlemagne.
He then got over being mad at St. Ludger. The moral of the story here is when you keep the boss
waiting you better have a good excuse.
Then there was Saint John Jones who was a Welshman who went to college in Rome and
became a priest while he was there. When he came back to Wales, the people were angry at him
for being ordained abroad depriving them of the privilege so they hung him: which shows how a
European education is a terrific status symbol, but the folks at home may think you are a snob.
The list goes on and on: So many wonderful people and many of whom had very difficult lives.
Some captured the imagination of their day and then there were those not at all appreciated by
those around them who had to wait centuries before the Church recognized their saintliness.
Today is a celebration of the thousands upon thousands who give us reason to hope. The fact that
the Church very early on felt the need to have a feast in honor of all the saints reflects the
conviction that there are too many to be identified. Most of the saints, today’s feast tells us, are
known only to God. And that in itself should give all of us great reason to hope.
The Book of Revelation is rich in symbolism and it is here that we encounter the idea of how vast
is the number of those who are holy in God’s eyes. For instance, twelve symbolizes fullness.
There were twelve months in the year and twelve tribes in Israel. Revelation also tells us that in
his vision of heaven, John learned that the number of those who were ‘sealed,” or saved was “one
hundred and forty four thousand.” This figure is a multiple of twelve, the number of fullness, and
a thousand, the number of vastness. Taken together the two figures indicate that no one is
excluded from salvation. The verses immediately following were omitted from today’s reading.
They mention each of the twelve tribes of Israel by name and say that in each case the number of
these saved was twelve thousand. Again the numbers of fullness and vastness are multiplied to
show that all members of the tribe are saved. The concluding part of the vision, which we did
hear, shows that salvation extends not only to all Israel, but to the whole of humanity.
Immediately after recording the presence in heaven of all members of all twelve tribes of Israel,
John sees a “huge crowd which no one could count from every nation, race, and people, and
tongue.”
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In the language of symbol he was recording the fulfillment of God’s desire much as we read in
First Timothy 2 “all people should find salvation and come to know the truth.” The language of
this reading in Revelation is poetic, but it is not descriptive. Heaven cannot be described in
human language any more than God can be described. God, and the invisible spiritual world of
God, the angels, and the saints, are far too big and glorious to be captured in any speech known to
humankind. That is the clear teaching from First John. He writes: “What we shall be later has not
yet come to light.” All we know, John says, is that in heaven “we shall be like God, for we shall
see him as he is.” Nowhere in the Bible do we get precise answers to questions about life beyond
death, or about the present existence of the saints. Scripture tells us only what we need to know
for the here and now.
An important part of this knowledge is Jesus’ teaching we encounter in Matthew chapter 5.
These beatitudes, by the way, were not for general consumption. They were not addressed to
everybody indiscriminately, but only to those who were willing to follow him completely.
For them, Jesus says, ordinary worldly standards and expectations are reversed.
The poor are made rich; the sorrowful are comforted; the lowly are raised up; those who hunger
for God’s holiness are filled; the merciful experience mercy; the single hearted see God; the
peacemakers are God’s children; and those who are persecuted for their faithfulness to God are
vindicated and filled with joy. The saints are those for whom those beautiful promises have
already been fulfilled. Today’s festival gives us hope by reminding us that the vast majority of
the saints are known only to God. With increased confidence, therefore, we can pray that Jesus’
promises will be fulfilled for us as well.
Finally today we have another reason to hope and it is this: The saints are not only more
numerous than we normally suppose. They are also more ordinary. Doing the ordinary everyday
things of life as well as we can and to the greater glory of God seems to me to be a good way to
honor God. And for those of us who seem to think we are nothing but sinners without a chance,
the best definition of a saint is a sinner who never gave up.
May we pray?
Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the
mystical body of your son. Give us grace to follow your blessed ones in all virtues and godly
living…that we too may come to the joys that you have prepared for those who truly love
you. We ask this through Jesus Christ who is Lord for ever and ever. Amen.
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