Revelation 7:2-4,9-14; I John 3:1-3; Matthew 5:1-12
Today’s celebration of All Saints is very much about “people needing people.” We Catholics seem very much to need our fellow humans, the saints. In the first decades of the history of our Church, we have sought out, imitated and prayed to the martyrs of our church — men and women like ourselves. In the catacombs of ancient Rome masses were offered on the tombs of the martyrs as we sought their intercession. St. Paul in the earliest of our new Testament writings was already calling them “saints,” or, “holy ones.”
Unlike Christianity, Judaism or Islam, many religions do not honor just one God but many gods and goddesses each with their own particular role. For instance, there was the god of war, the god of love, the god of the harvest in ancient Rome. Most pagan converts to Christianity in its first 500 years, whether Romans, Greeks, African or Asian, were accustomed to honoring and praying to many different gods, each expected to help in a special area of life. For the Greeks and Romans, these many gods and goddesses were very much like human beings, often appearing to and even consorting with ordinary folks. In fact, we read in Acts of Apostles, that at Lystra people thought that Barnabas was Zeus, the greatest of the gods, and Paul was his messenger, Hermes.
And so, although from the very beginning Christianity emphasized Jesus and later Mary as the focus of our prayer, there always seems to have been what we would call “devotion” to special human beings. Some of those men and women were esteemed for their holiness of life. Others had special abilities to heal diseases or work miracles. Still others were honored because they had been loyal to the Lord even to the point of being martyred. The relics of these special people were sought after and honored as were statues and other images of them. At some times and in some places the saints seemed to outrank and even be more popular than Jesus and Mary.
It should not surprise us therefore, that throughout our history there has frequently been a reaction against the cult of the saints. One can still see in central Turkey today images of saints damaged and disfigured. These were not by damaged by Muslims whose religion forbids the representation of the human form. Rather they were damaged by Christians of the 8th and 9th centuries who mistakenly thought that their sacred icons of Jesus, Mary and the saints had somehow angered God who, in the first of the Ten Commandments, had forbidden the worship of any idols.
In southern Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries, and in central Europe at the time of the Protestant Reformation, there was a violent reaction against the cult of saints. Their relics were frequently scattered and their shrines destroyed. All over France today it is still possible to see the ruins of thousands of churches and countless statues of saints disfigured during the Revolution of the late 1700s. Even more recently in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council there has been a certain emptying of many churches of the statues of saints as a kind of modern day “image breaking.”
In spite of these periodic outbursts against saints, and the sometimes over-emphasis on saints, most Catholics still have and honor images of their favorite saints. Along with Mary and Joseph there been great honor paid to many popular saints. It seems like no garden is complete without a St. Francis statue. St. Terese’ the Little Flower has had enormous popularity because of her “little way.” And where would we without the help of St. Anthony who always seems to find those precious misplaced items.
And then there are those that we were blessed to have known during our lifetime, and whose canonization we hopefully anticipate, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (affectionately known to us as Mother Teresa), and Pope John Paul II. Although they have not officially been canonized we still turn to them and ask them to pray for us. Who of us can honestly say that we have never asked a saint to pray for us? Even though the relationship of the ordinary believer with saints may at times have been a love-hate one, saints have remained a very important part of both Catholic belief and Catholic culture. We very much seem to need saints and want them to be near us and hear us.
Amazingly, God — especially the Holy Spirit — (has chosen to need) saints too, so the Church teaches. St. Basil the Great is quoted: “Saints are for the Spirit a place to dwell as in the Spirit’s own home.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that while they live among us saints give example, inspire us by their writings, and help us by their prayers. It adds that once they have gone to heaven their most exalted service is to intercede for those they have left on earth. St. Therese of Lisieux is quoted as saying on her deathbed, “I want to spend my heaven doing good on earth.” The Catechism also says that “it is through the saints that the Spirit manifests holiness and continues the work of salvation.”
This is where our particular role enters the picture. Like the saints that have been “canonized” in our church we too are each called to be saints. As “saints” or “holy ones,” the Spirit manifests holiness and continues the work of salvation through us. So on this day we celebrate not just the memory of those men and women who have been “outstanding in holiness.” On this day we celebrate also our own personal call to holiness, to be living witnesses of the saving graces of Jesus Christ working through our own lives.
By our witness to faith the Holy Spirit works through us in order that others too will come to know and believe. In other words we need one another, in this world, as well as in the next, so that we may help one another to grow in holiness. That is what it means to believe in the “communion of saints.” This thought brings me full circle back to my opening statement: Our celebration of All Saints is very much about “people needing people.”
Great homily, Fr. Kevin.