Today we celebrate the feast of All Saints: a commemoration that began in the early days of the Church to remember the many Christians who had been put to death in the times of persecution. The Romans didn’t care what people believed, as long as they believed that there was no power greater than the Emperor’s. When Christians claimed that Jesus was Lord, they were challenging the Emperor’s ultimate authority. The goal of the authorities was to get Christians to confess that the Emperor was Lord: all powerful, and himself the source of life.
Those who resisted continued to testify that Jesus, not the Emperor, was Lord. In the face of death, they offered witness to the power of God, and to the authority of the only begotten Son of God. They were called “witnesses” (martyrs in Latin) because they were willing to witness even at the cost of their lives. In the midst of persecution, the members of the Church were inspired by their heroic example. So many Christians were martyred that the Church could not remember them all: in fact, could not even remember their names. So people began to observe All Saints’ Day, reminding the Church of the heroic witnesses who were too many to count.
When we think of the saints today, we think first of all about the holy people of the past. Not just the martyrs, of course, but all the holy men and women who reflect the light of Christ in their lives. This is “the great cloud of witnesses” (Heb. 12:1) that the Letter to the Hebrews talks about. These are they who “through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises… won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight” (Heb.11:33-34), Hebrews goes on to say. That is, people of heroic virtue: Christians from the past who are examples to us all.
St. Peter and St. Paul; St. Augustine and St. Francis; Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King: these are the saints of the past who inspire us today. Among all the rest, we especially remember the Blessed Virgin Mary, the first to follow Jesus. Even before Jesus called his apostles, God called Mary to open her heart. She said, “Let it be with me according to your word” (Lk. 1:38), making possible the incarnation of Christ himself. There can be no better example of faithfulness for us to follow today than Mary’s openness to God’s word.
In a New Testament sense, we are all called to be saints of God. When St. Paul wrote his letters to the early Christian churches, he addressed them to the “saints.” “To all God’s beloved in Rome, called to be saints” (Rom. 1:7), Paul wrote to the Church in Rome; or even to the Church in Ephesus, from which we read today, “To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 1:1), as St. Paul begins that letter. “In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will” (Eph. 1:11), as he goes on to say.
In other words, when we celebrate the feast of All Saints, we’re not only remembering the saints of the past, the heroic witnesses of old. We’re also remembering that each of us today is called by God to be a saint. Saints don’t just live in the past, they live in the present; and each of us has that high calling to faithfulness and holiness of life.
There are the saints of the past, and our calling to be saints in the present. There is also the promise of the future: the destiny that St. Paul refers to in his letter. “So that… you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints…” (Eph. 1:18). “Hope that is seen is not hope,” as St. Paul says in the Letter to the Romans. “But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” (Rom. 8:24-25}. The inheritance for us still lies ahead, though God’s promise is sure.
Past, present, and future: the communion of saints binds all three together. Our confirmands today are part of a great tradition that includes the saints of the past, the great examples of witness and faith. They are also called to be saints here and now. And all the saints are called to the promise of eternal life, to a future with God in Christ. These are the riches of Christ’s glorious inheritance that are prepared for us. God grant that we may together receive them, in the kingdom of God that has no end.
