All Saints' Day
/Solemnity of All Saints
1 November 2022
Every time we profess the Catholic Faith by stating the Creed, as we will do in a few moments, we profess several essential elements of faith in God and our salvation. And we profess several essential elements about the Church. At the end of the Creed we say, “I believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.” This line of the Creed identifies the four marks of the Church. These are like identifying signs that point to the Church established by our Blessed Lord. Where we might be in doubt about what is the Church or where is the Church, we look to find those marks. The Church established by our Lord is one; it has unity of faith and organization. The Church established by our Lord includes all people and provides the wholeness of teaching and sanctifying means for our salvation. The meaning of ‘catholic’ is whole or universal. The Church established by our Lord was entrusted to the Apostles and maintains an unbroken line of apostolic succession such that the same authority given by Christ comes to us today through our bishops. And most notable for today’s solemnity, we profess that identifying mark of the Church that is holiness.
The Church is both a divine and a human institution. She is both a spiritual reality and a reality that exists in this material world. Our Lord, the groom to his bride the Church, has made her indefectibly holy by dying to purify and save her and to unite her to himself. Yet, the holiness proper to the Church must still be fostered and attained by that part of the Church that is still on its journey. That means you and me. We have been brought into the holiness of the Church by baptism and the life of grace. Yet, we are still on pilgrimage here. We still struggle with sin. We must reform our lives and respond to the call to holiness so that the identifying mark of holiness may continue to shine visibly in the Church.
The Church’s liturgical life has us celebrate the holy examples of so many saints. Many saints punctuate our liturgical calendar because their lives are known and of great renown. But by no means do we think that the identified and canonized saints are the only saints there are. After all, the vision of St. John in the Book of Revelation [first reading] indicates both a specific number (144,000 from every tribe of Israel) and an additional “great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue.” Today’s solemnity celebrates the holiness of the Church and it wraps into one observance all those many more saints who are more anonymous, who make the holiness of the Church shine forth. In celebrating the holiness today of both the known and anonymous saints, we have a renewed call to live more deeply our membership in the Body of Christ by growing in holiness.
The People of Israel honored Jerusalem and the Holy Temple as the place of God’s favor and their citizenry. The prophecy of Ezekiel is prime in identifying the hoped-for New Jerusalem where the Temple would be rebuilt as a center of the Messianic Kingdom and the gathering place of the children of the twelve tribes of Israel. In the Book of Revelation this city is also called the Heavenly Jerusalem. In the New Covenant we have come to realize that we await the fulfillment of this Holy City that gathers us all together as a nourishing mother gathers her children. St. Paul made use of this notion in an allegory about the two sons of Abraham, one from Hagar the slave woman and one from his beloved Sarah, the free woman. He said these two women stand for the two covenants. Hagar and her children are enslaved and stand for the present Jerusalem. But, wrote St. Paul, “the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother” (Gal. 4:21-26). As children of the promise fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ, we await that city to come. And so, at the altar in a few moments you will hear some poetic imagery for today’s solemnity that might strike you as curious. I will chant: “For today by your gift we celebrate the festival of your city, the heavenly Jerusalem, our mother” (Preface of the Mass of All Saints’ Day; cf. Rev. 21:10).
Brothers and sisters, the Church is holy. She is already holy and she is called to holiness among her members still journeying here. You and I have the charge to let that holiness proper to the Church shine through our lives. We aren’t living up to our mission if we think being lukewarm or occasionally godly will suffice. We also must reject the heresy that would view holiness as an impossible project for us. The Lord has laid down his life to save us and has opened for us a path that we can traverse. Recently on the Three Hearts Pilgrimage the group of 1,500 people processed silently in the final mile to enter Clear Creek Abbey Church. By necessity some pilgrims were in the lead, as is the nature of a line, some in the middle of the pack, and some at the end, but they were all journeying closer to the abbey church. Being among the first group of pilgrims, I was one of the first to enter the church. We had a long wait in prayerful silence as the other pilgrims arrived after us. That strikes me as a moving image for how we celebrate today in one observance so many saints, known and anonymous, and how we are called to take up part of that great multitude of holy ones in procession. The saints who have already arrived in the heavenly Jerusalem are already around God’s throne praying for us and awaiting our arrival. They are like the pilgrims I mentioned a few moments ago at the head of the procession who arrive first. We, though much later in the procession of God’s holy ones are still journeying, but – and here’s what I find moving about the image – we are no less a part of that procession of God’s holy ones; we’re just further back in the line. We have the example and the powerful prayers of those who are in the lead. And that gives us greater hope and greater endurance to continue moving in this procession of God’s one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.