This Tuesday will be the feast day of “All Saints” in the Roman Catholic Church. This is a great feast day for us since we celebrate our name sakes as well as some of our favorite saints and local patrons. So, happy feast day to you all.
The Catholic Church celebrates and lifts up those persons who exemplified extraordinary virtue in their lives. They are persons the Church declares as immediately upon death entering into heaven, no further cleansing or purging as St. Paul puts it is necessary (c.f. 1 Cor. 3:15 and following).
Their lives bear the fruit of a holy life as can easily be observed, i.e. the Apostles, John the Baptist, Augustine, Aquinas, Therese, etc. They are our Hall of Fame Inductees.
This does not mean that we are not saints; anyone who believes is a saint, already being given God’s grace. The saints we mention now and celebrate are canonized saints (declared so by the Church). These declarations either come immediately, as is usually the case with martyrs, the people raising their voices to declare saints, and with final investigation, inquiry, and proclamation of the Church.
We too, like our Hall of Fame inductees are called to the same type of virtue and holy life. Sometimes as Catholics we tend to believe that the life of a saint is not for me, it’s something rather for priests, nuns, religious, old people, and real saints, I’m just a regular person. Nothing can be further from the Truth.
The first 12 Apostles were no different than you or I.
They were actually a rag-tag lot. Many of them were fishermen, one a tax collector, and another zealot. On one occasion James and John had their mommy go to Jesus to see if they could obtain places of honor when Jesus entered into his glory. Another time the apostles asked Jesus to rain down fire and thunder on a town which did not accept their message. Jesus once rebuked Peter, “Get behind me Satan, for you are not thinking as God thinks, but as man thinks.” Peter also denied Jesus after everything he witnessed and the rest ran with their tails between their legs when Jesus was arrested. These are our Hall of Fame Inductees.
Not to be too hard on these good folks, we are no different; we are made of the same stuff. We are also called like they were, by name and then sent to our vocation by God. What makes the Apostles extraordinary, holy, and canonized saints is the fact that they ran the race, they competed well, and they ran to win, as St. Paul eloquently tells us. Every time they fell they got up and when put to the ultimate test they witnessed with their blood. Their holiness is handed down to posterity. A bunch of fishermen, tax collectors, and zealots with their blood sanctified by Christ have helped Christianity spread to well over 1.5 billion followers and growing. Again no different than you or I, but the difference in their getting inducted is that they conformed their wills more and more towards God each and every day and the fruits of their labors are easily recognized. This goes for any canonized Saint, be it Saint Padre Pio, St. Thomas More, St. Catherine, or St. Vincent Pallotti.
What draws us to them is that we crave that same life, one that is close to Jesus, one that desires holiness and virtue above all else. We can become that; don’t sell yourself short for once you do you will only achieve 2nd best. Let us ask our own name sakes, our favorite saints to pray for us that we will grow closer to God, that we will live lives of compassion in order to be saints just like them, no different than let’s say a fisherman, tax collector, or a zealot.
Fr. John
picture taken from google search for all saints image
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