Saint of the Week – All Saints

On the 1st November we will celebrate the solemnity of All Saints. This gives us a chance to commemorate not only those saints whose names we know, but the vast multitude of saints whose names we will only come to know in the life to come. These saints include people the world over who have won the crown of eternal life through Faith in Jesus Christ: fathers and mothers, grandparents and babies, people of every social strata, culture and period of history. These countless ‘anonymous’ saints are with God now and are unfailingly interceding for the Church from heaven.

This gives us a chance to commemorate not only those saints whose names we know, but the vast multitude of saints whose names we will only come to know in the life to come. These saints include people the world over who have won the crown of eternal life through Faith in Jesus Christ: fathers and mothers, grandparents and babies, people of every social strata, culture and period of history. These countless ‘anonymous’ saints are with God now and are unfailingly interceding for the Church from heaven.

The word ‘saint’ (in Latin, sanctus) means ‘holy.’ Properly speaking, only God is holy, but the ‘holy ones’ by their perfect communion in the Body of Christ come to share in the holiness of God. Whilst we remain in this life we share imperfectly in the holiness of the Body of Christ (because we have to contend with sin). The saints are those who have gone before us to remind us of our own call to holiness, and to guide us on the way home. As St John explains, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.” (1 John 3:2) Heaven is the ‘beatific vision’ – the wondrous sight of those blessed who behold God face to face. The Book of Revelation describes the vast multitude of saints who worship before the throne of God. The symbolic number 144,000 is used to indicate an immense number of the elect that corresponds to the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles (12 x 12 x 1000 = 144,000). It’s John’s way of saying ‘the vast and completed number.’ Note that the number has never been taken literally in the Catholic tradition. Indeed, in the following verse John describes “a great multitude which no man can number from every nation, tribe, people and language” (Revelation 7:9). It’s impossible for us to pin down the precise number of saints since the number grows with every day. It is estimated that there are some 10,000 formally recognised saints in the Catholic Church. But this is not to say that these are the only occupants of heaven! Most of the saints in heaven will never be formally canonised.

We venerate the saints for two key reasons: their inspiration and intercession. Firstly, discovering the saints inspires us to imitate them in their lives of sacrifice and charity. When we feel spiritually lukewarm their heroic example can inspire us to persevere in the Christian life. The second reason, is that the saints have the power to intercede for us from heaven and so we can call upon this army of heavenly helpers in our moment of need. The Solemnity of All Saints serves to remind us of what many popes have repeatedly described as ‘the universal call to holiness.’ The Church means to remind us that whatever our vocation and however ordinary we might seem, we too are called to be saints. Holiness should not be the domain of a privileged few – you and I must become saints since this is the point of our Baptism and the entire Christian life: to be with God in heaven.

All Saints, pray for us!