Every
year, on the first day of November, our holy Catholic Church celebrates All
Saints’ Day. We
honor all those members of the community of saints, both the well-known,
officially recognized saints of our Catholic Church, and those were are not
officially recognized and not well-known. In
fact, our English word for saint means “holy.” In
the past decade, it seems like there has been a renewed interest in the saints. One
of my favorite books by a Catholic author is My Life With the Saints by
Jesuit priest Father James Martin, in which he writes about how various saints
have influences and intersected with his life. While
we have information about many Saints, and we honor them on specific days,
saints like St Ignatius of Loyola and St Teresa of Avila, there are many
unknown or unsung Saints, holy men and women whose stories are not well-known
and famous. Even
though in the Apostles Creed that we pray at the beginning of the rosary we
profess that we believe in the communion of saints, we might not be sure of
what that means. Part
of this reality of the communion of saints is the way that it prays for us. Lumen
Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution of the Church from the Second Vatican
Council, asserts that being more closely united to Christ, those saints who
dwell in heaven fix the whole Church more firmly in holiness. They add nobility to our worship. They never cease to intercede with the Father
for us. For their care and concern, our
weaknesses are greatly helped.
I
don’t know about you, but I find it very interesting that we hear the
Beatitudes from the Gospel of Matthew each year on Saints Day. Even
though the Beatitudes are a very familiar part of what Jesus teaches us in the
Gospel in how we should live out our faith, perhaps we still have a hard time
understanding the teaching that is behind the Beatitudes. If
you think about what our secular society sees as a blessing or happiness in our
lives, you might names things such as riches and material wealth, popularity
and power, fame and intelligence, athletic ability and style. Those
considered blessed by Jesus would not be seen as such in our secular world: the
poor in spirit, the merciful, the clean of heart, the peacemakers, those who
hunger and thirst for righteousness, and those who mourn. In fact,
some might see the Beatitudes as representing some kind of hardship, heavy
load, or deep self-discipline that we would need to live. The
values of the Beatitudes encompass different Christian virtues and Gospel
values that the saints lived out in their lives. The
poor in spirit are those who live in humility, who place their reliance on God, who put their
faith in God and not in the fleeting values of the world. And
then we have the merciful, those who show love, compassion, mercy, and forgiveness
to others, even when it seems impossible to do so, even when it would be so
much easier to strike out in anger and frustration, even when others would seek
revenge or vengeance. When
we see those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, we see men and women who
seek to bring justice and peace into our world, who are willing to stand up for
the values of our faith even when it means that we will suffer greatly for
it. Jesus
sees those holy men and women who live out the values of the Gospel as being
truly blessed.
We celebrate the Community of Saints as a very real
part of our lives of faith. We think of the great saints of our Church: the
missionary spirit of Jean de Brebeuf, the compassion and mercy of Mother Teresa
of Calcutta, the courage of Joan of Arc, the theological wisdom of Thomas
Aquinas, the thirst for justice of Martin de Porres, the love of nature and
love of animals of Francis of Assisi. But think of those members of our Community of
Saints who are less famous and who are not officially named as such by the
Church. Think of the little grandmothers who went to
mass each day and raised their children and grandchildren in the faith. Think of the fathers and grandfathers who worked
out in the fields and in the factories each day to provide for their families,
who lived out the values of the Gospel in their lives each day, who instilled
those values in their family members by their example. All of us can name loved ones and family members
who influenced our lives of faith and who are now members of the community of
Saints. In celebrating All Saints Day today, we also
celebrate the importance of community in our lives of faith. Our personal relationship with God is indeed
very important, but our journey in life and our journey in faith take place in
community, and it is in community that we live out our faith and the values of
the Gospel. Our faith community helps us and encourages us
on our journey. Our faith community helps educate us and nurture
us. And the Community of Saints not only helps us
through its witness, but through the prayers and friendship its members provide
to us as well.
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