Celebrating the universal call to holiness

All Saints’ Day 1st November, 2017

Rev 7, 2-14; 1 Jn 3, 1-3; Mt 5,1-12

Just a few years ago I was celebrating mass in a school and I asked the children for a show of hands, “Who of you would like to become a saint?” Nobody, not even one child raised their hand. Then I asked another question. “Who of you wants to be happy, but really happy, with a joy that never, ever ends?” They all raised their hands. This is what being a saint means after all. I do not blame the children, however. Admittedly, our iconography of saints is not very helpful. I mean, lets face it, who wants to spend his of her life with their hands crossed on their chest and going around with a palm branch, or suffering any of the tortures that we see them pass through?

But perhaps this is the specific importance of today’s feast. Today we do not only celebrate the superheroes of our faith who have done heroic acts and whose names have echoed for centuries because they were courageous enough to to eaten by lions for the love of Christ. Today, neither do we celebrate only those who went to the ends of the earth as missionaries enduring all dangers and wild beasts to baptise people.

Instead, today we are commemorating people like you and me who lived a simple life, with all the difficulties and challenges and temptations that come with it. And of these there are not just a few hundred which make their way to the canonization masses at St Peter’s in Rome, and to our liturgical calendar. Of these, there is a number which cannot even be counted. We have just heard in the first reading: “A great multitude, which no one can count, from every nation, race, people and tongue.”

A saint, is not a replica of Jesus or even of Mary. Rather a saint one who, according to his or her own unique character and temperament, according to his or her own talents and resources navigates through the roller coster of life, amidst the challenges and the reality of sin. Somebody once said, every saint has a past and every sinner has a future. Everybody can change and the invitation to become saints is open to everyone, nobody excluded. Becoming a saint is not an automatic process, and neither does it occur by default. Indeed, great effort is needed.

Jesus tells us how to obtain this this happiness, this joy which lasts forever: the beatitudes: Blessed are you…Happy are you when…They are a description of who is really blessed against those who are blessed merely in the eyes of the world. We have to be careful not to think that the beatitudes are praising those who are face situations which they cannot change and therefore simply lump it passively. This is a poor reading of the text. The saints are those who no not give up but continue to strive against all odds. In fact, whenever St Paul mentions becoming saints, he uses the powerful imagery of athletics. He reminds us how the athletes focus on the prize and undergo strict training in order to obtain a crown that withers. How much more, Paul says, must we train for a crown that will last forever? (1 Cor 9, 24-27).

Therefore today’s feast has three important aims. First, to acknowledge the efforts of so many people who have already successfully passed through this life to the next courageously striving towards the good. Second, to keep these people as guides, and shining stars for us, so that just as they have done so, with their limited resources and despite all the challenges faced, we too may be encouraged to do so as well. After all, this was one of the main points of the Second Vatican Council: The universal call to holiness, which is not a prerogative of the “elite” of the church but of each and every one of us here.