All Saints Day , November 1st

Pope Benedict, on All Saints Day in 2008, proclaimed the following words:

“With great joy, we celebrate today the feast of All Saints. Visiting a nursery garden, one remains taken aback,  at the variety of plants and flowers, and spontaneously begins to think of the Creator's fantasy that made the earth a marvelous garden. These same sentiments come to us when we consider the spectacle of holiness: the world appears to us as a "garden," where the Spirit of God has sustained with remarkable wonder, a multitude of saints, male and female, from every age and social condition, of every tongue, people and culture.

 

Each is different from the others, with the uniqueness of their own personality and their own spiritual charisma. All, however, were marked by the "seal" of Jesus, the imprint of his love, witnessed upon the Cross. All now are at joy, in a feast without end. Like Jesus, they reached this goal across toil and trial, each one encountering their share of sacrifice to participate in the glory of the resurrection.”

Today, November the First, the Church celebrates the feast of all saints. Welcome to the saint of the day.

 The Book of Revelation  Chapter 7 verse  nine and fourteen gives the magnificent vision of the multitudes of saints gathered around the Lamb:

 “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

One of the elders  said to me, ‘These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. “

Indeed there are many saints in the Church’s roll of saints  and each has been given a special day. There are also millions of saints who lived heroic Christian lives. They are unknown and their story never told. This feast celebrates the feasts of all saints. In this great galaxy of saints the supreme position is indeed given  to Mary  Our Mother who is highest perfection of saint hood.

Today we celebrate our communion with the all the saints who have gone before us leading a life of holiness. The saints of God are living entities just like each one of us. They constantly enjoy the blissful vision of God and intercede for us in the presence of God.

All saints Day  is a day of hope for all of us, the hope that one day we will also find our place in the book of  life provided that we lead a life based on the teachings of Christ. The feast  is also a warning that Christian life is not merely a member ship in the Church, it is an invitation to participate in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, in a special way.  The supreme example of saint hood is that our Lady. Her saint hood was her complete surrender of her will to the will of God, so gloriously expressed in the first fiat, let thy will be done, that she uttered at the time of annunciation.

Each of us is called to say a fiat, let thy will be done, in our lives too. Indeed, each person’s acquiring of  saint hood will be unique, based on the calling and the special charisma  with which we are blessed.