Entry 0346: Reflections on the Solemnity of All Saints
by Pope Benedict XVI
On eight occasions during his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI delivered reflections on 1 November, the Solemnity of All Saints, in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012. Here are the texts of eight brief addresses prior to the recitation of the Angelus and one homily delivered on these occasions.
SOLEMNITY
OF ALL SAINTS
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
St
Peter’s Square, Tuesday, 1st November 2005
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
Today, we are celebrating
the Solemnity of All Saints, allowing us to experience the joy of being part of
the large family of God’s friends or, as St Paul writes, to “share the lot of the
saints in light” (Col 1: 12).
The Liturgy re-proposes
the expression, full of wonder, of the Apostle John: “See what love the Father has
bestowed on us in letting us be called children of God! Yet that is what we are”
(I Jn 3: 1).
Yes, to become saints
means to completely fulfill what we already are, raised to the dignity of God’s
adopted children, in Christ Jesus (see Eph 1: 5; Rom 8: 14-17). With the Incarnation
of the Son and his death and Resurrection, God wanted to reconcile humanity to himself
and open it up to sharing in his own life.
Whoever believes
in Christ, Son of God, is reborn “from above”, regenerated through the work of the
Holy Spirit (see Jn 3: 1-8). This mystery is accomplished in the Sacrament of Baptism,
through which Mother
Church
New life, received
in Baptism, is not subject to corruption and the power of death. For those who live
in Christ, death is the passage from the earthly pilgrimage to the Heavenly Homeland,
where the Father welcomes all of his children “from every nation and race, people
and tongue”, as we read today in the Book of Revelation (7: 9).
For this reason,
it is very significant and appropriate that after the Solemnity of All Saints, the
Liturgy tomorrow has us celebrate the Commemoration of all of the Faithful Departed.
The “communion of saints”, which we profess in the Creed, is a reality that is constructed
here below, but is fully made manifest when we will see God “as he is” (I Jn 3:
2).
It is the reality
of a family bound together by deep bonds of spiritual solidarity that unites the
faithful departed to those who are pilgrims in the world. It is a mysterious but
real bond, nourished by prayer and participation in the Sacrament of the Eucharist.
In the Mystical Body
of Christ the souls of the faithful meet, overcoming the obstacle of death; they
pray for one another, carrying out in charity an intimate exchange of gifts.
In this dimension
of faith one understands the practice of offering prayers of suffrage for the dead,
especially in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, memorial of Christ’s Pasch which opened
to believers the passage to eternal life.
Uniting myself spiritually
to those who are visiting cemeteries to pray for their deceased, tomorrow afternoon
I too will prayerfully visit the tombs of the Popes in the Vatican Grottoes, which
surround the tomb of the Apostle Peter. I will have a special prayer for the beloved
John Paul II.
Dear friends, may
the traditional visit of these days to the tombs of our dear departed be an occasion
to fearlessly consider the mystery of death and to cultivate that constant vigilance
which prepares us to meet it serenely. The Virgin Mary, Queen of Saints, to whom
we now turn with filial trust, will help us.
SOLEMNITY
OF ALL SAINTS
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
Wednesday,
1 November 2006
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
Today, we are celebrating
the Solemnity of All Saints, and tomorrow we will be commemorating the faithful
departed. These two deeply felt liturgical celebrations offer us a special opportunity
to meditate upon eternal life.
Is modern man still
waiting for this eternal life, or does he consider it part of a mythology now obsolete?
In our time more
than in the past, people are so absorbed by earthly things that at times they find
it difficult to think about God as the protagonist of history and of our own existence.
By its nature, however,
human life reaches out for something greater which transcends it; the human yearning
for justice, truth and full happiness is irrepressible.
In the face of the
enigma of death, the desire for and hope of meeting their loved ones again in Heaven
is alive in many, just as there is a strong conviction that a Last Judgment will
re-establish justice, and the expectation of a definitive encounter in which each
person will be given his reward.
For us as Christians,
however, “eternal life” does not merely mean a life that lasts for ever but rather
a new quality of existence, fully immersed in God’s love, which frees us from evil
and death and places us in never-ending communion with all our brothers and sisters
who share in the same Love.
Thus, eternity can
already be present at the heart of earthly and temporal life when the soul is united
through grace with God, its ultimate foundation.
Everything passes,
God alone never changes. A Psalm says: “Though my flesh and my heart waste away,
God is the rock of my heart and my portion for ever” (Ps 73[72]: 26). All Christians,
called to holiness, are men and women who live firmly anchored to this “Rock”, their
feet on the ground but their hearts already in Heaven, the final dwelling-place
of friends of God.
Dear brothers and
sisters, let us meditate on these realities with our souls turned toward our final
and definitive destiny, which gives meaning to the circumstances of our daily lives.
Let us enliven the joyous sentiment of the communion of Saints and allow ourselves
to be drawn by them towards the goal of our existence: the face-to-face encounter with God.
Let us pray that
this may be the inheritance of all the faithful departed, not only our own loved
ones but also of all souls, especially those most forgotten and most in need of
divine mercy.
May the Virgin Mary,
Queen of all the Saints, guide us to choose the world of eternal life at every moment,
“and life everlasting”, as we say in the Creed; a world already
inaugurated by the Resurrection of Christ, whose coming we can hasten with our sincere
conversion and charitable acts.
HOLY
MASS ON THE SOLEMNITY OF ALL SAINTS
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
Our Eucharistic celebration
began with the exhortation: “Let us all rejoice in the Lord”. The liturgy invites
us to share in the heavenly jubilation of the Saints, to taste their joy. The Saints
are not a small caste of chosen souls but an innumerable crowd to which the liturgy
urges us to raise our eyes. This multitude not only includes the officially recognized
Saints, but the baptized of every epoch and nation who sought to carry out the divine
will faithfully and lovingly. We are unacquainted with the faces and even the names
of many of them, but with the eyes of faith we see them shine in God’s firmament
like glorious stars.
Today, the Church
is celebrating her dignity as “Mother of the Saints, an image of the Eternal City
In the first reading,
the author of the Book of Revelation describes them as “a great multitude which
no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues”
(Rv 7: 9).
This people includes
the Saints of the Old Testament, starting with the righteous Abel and the faithful
Patriarch, Abraham, those of the New Testament, the numerous early Christian Martyrs
and the Blesseds and Saints of later centuries, to the witnesses of Christ in this
epoch of ours.
They are all brought
together by the common desire to incarnate the Gospel in their lives under the impulse
of the Holy Spirit, the life-giving spirit of the People of God.
But “why should our
praise and glorification, or even the celebration of this Solemnity, mean anything
to the Saints?” A famous homily of St Bernard for All Saints’ Day begins with this
question. It could equally well be asked today. And the response the Saint offers
us is also timely: “The Saints”, he says, “have no need of honor from us; neither
does our devotion add the slightest thing to what is theirs.... But I tell you,
when I think of them, I feel myself inflamed by a tremendous yearning” (Disc.
2, Opera Omnia Cisterc. 5, 364ff.).
This, then, is the
meaning of today’s Solemnity: looking at the shining example of the Saints to reawaken
within us the great longing to be like them; happy to live near God, in his light,
in the great family of God’s friends. Being a Saint means living close to God, to
live in his family. And this is the vocation of us all, vigorously reaffirmed by
the Second Vatican Council and solemnly proposed today for our attention.
But how can we become
holy, friends of God? We can first give a negative answer to this question: to be
a Saint requires neither extraordinary actions or works nor the possession of exceptional
charisms. Then comes the positive reply: it is necessary first of all to listen
to Jesus and then to follow him without losing heart when faced by difficulties.
“If anyone serves me”, he warns us, “he must follow me; and where I am, there shall
my servant be also; if any one serves me, the Father will honor him” (Jn 12: 26).
Like the grain of
wheat buried in the earth, those who trust him and love him sincerely accept dying
to themselves. Indeed, he knows that whoever seeks to keep his life for himself
loses it, and whoever gives himself, loses himself, and in this very way finds life
(see Jn 12: 24-25).
The Church’s experience
shows that every form of holiness, even if it follows different paths, always passes
through the Way of the Cross, the way of self-denial. The Saints’ biographies describe
men and women who, docile to the divine plan, sometimes faced unspeakable trials
and suffering, persecution and martyrdom. They persevered in their commitment: “they...
have come out of the great tribulation”, one reads in Revelation, “they have washed
their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rv 7: 14). Their names
are written in the book of life (see Rv 20: 12) and Heaven is their eternal dwelling-place.
The example of the
Saints encourages us to follow in their same footsteps and to experience the joy
of those who trust in God, for the one true cause of sorrow and unhappiness for
men and women is to live far from him.
Holiness demands
a constant effort, but it is possible for everyone because, rather than a human
effort, it is first and foremost a gift of God, thrice Holy (see Is 6: 3). In the
second reading, the Apostle John remarks: “See what love the Father has given us,
that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (I Jn 3: 1).
It is God, therefore,
who loved us first and made us his adoptive sons in Jesus. Everything in our lives
is a gift of his love: how can we be indifferent before such a great mystery? How
can we not respond to the Heavenly Father’s love by living as grateful children?
In Christ, he gave us the gift of his entire self and calls us to a personal and
profound relationship with him.
Consequently, the
more we imitate Jesus and remain united to him the more we enter into the mystery
of his divine holiness. We discover that he loves us infinitely, and this prompts
us in turn to love our brethren. Loving always entails an act of self-denial, “losing
ourselves”, and it is precisely this that makes us happy.
Thus, we have come
to the Gospel of this feast, the proclamation of the Beatitudes which we have just
heard resound in this Basilica.
Jesus says: Blessed
are the poor in spirit, blessed those who mourn, the meek; blessed those who hunger
and thirst for justice, the merciful; blessed the pure in heart, the peacemakers,
the persecuted for the sake of justice (see Mt 5: 3-10).
In truth, the blessed
par excellence is only Jesus. He is, in fact, the true poor in spirit, the
one afflicted, the meek one, the one hungering and thirsting for justice, the merciful,
the pure of heart, the peacemaker. He is the one persecuted for the sake of justice.
The Beatitudes show
us the spiritual features of Jesus and thus express his mystery, the mystery of
his death and Resurrection, of his passion and of the joy of his Resurrection. This
mystery, which is the mystery of true blessedness, invites us to follow Jesus and
thus to walk toward it.
To the extent that
we accept his proposal and set out to follow him - each one in his own circumstances
- we too can participate in his blessedness. With him, the impossible becomes possible
and even a camel can pass through the eye of a needle (see Mk 10: 25); with his
help, only with his help, can we become perfect as the Heavenly Father is perfect
(see Mt 5: 48).
Dear brothers and
sisters, we are now entering the heart of the Eucharistic celebration that encourages
and nourishes holiness. In a little while, Christ will make himself present in the
most exalted way, Christ the true Vine to whom the faithful on earth and the Saints
in Heaven are united like branches.
Thus, the communion
of the pilgrim Church
In the Preface we
will proclaim that the Saints are friends and models of life for us. Let us invoke
them so that they may help us to imitate them and strive to respond generously,
as they did, to the divine call.
In particular, let
us invoke Mary, Mother of the Lord and mirror of all holiness. May she, the All
Holy, make us faithful disciples of her Son Jesus Christ! Amen.
SOLEMNITY OF ALL SAINTS
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
St
Peter’s Square, Thursday, 1 November 2007
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
On today’s Solemnity
of All Saints, our hearts are dilated to the dimensions of Heaven, exceeding the
limits of time and space. At the beginning of Christianity, the members of the Church
were also called “saints”. In his First Letter to the Corinthians, St Paul addresses
“those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who
in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Cor 1: 2). Indeed,
Christians are already saints because Baptism unites them to Jesus and to
his Paschal Mystery, but at the same time they must become so by conforming
themselves every more closely to him. Sometimes, people think that holiness is a
privileged condition reserved for the few elect. Actually, becoming holy is every
Christian’s task, indeed, we could say, every person’s! The Apostle writes that
God has always blessed us and has chosen us in Christ “that we should be holy and
blameless before him... in love” (Eph 1: 3-5). All human beings are therefore called
to holiness, which ultimately consists in living as children of God, in that “likeness”
with him in accordance with which they were created. All human beings are children
of God and all must become what they are by means of the demanding
process of freedom. God invites everyone to belong to his holy people. The “Way”
is Christ, the Son, the Holy One of God: “no one comes to the Father but by me [Jesus]”
(see Jn 14: 6).
The Church has wisely
placed in close succession the Feast of All Saints and All Souls’ Day. Our prayer
of praise to God and veneration of the blessed spirits which today’s liturgy presents
to us as “a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all
tribes and peoples and tongues” (Rv 7: 9), is united with prayers of suffrage for
all who have preceded us in passing from this world to eternal life. Tomorrow, we
shall be dedicating our prayers to them in a special way and we will celebrate the
Eucharistic Sacrifice for them. To tell the truth, the Church invites us to pray
for them every day, also offering our daily sufferings and efforts so that, completely
purified, they may be admitted to the eternal joy of light and peace in the Lord.
The Virgin Mary is
resplendent at the centre of the Assembly of Saints, “created beings all in lowliness
surpassing, as in height, above them all” (Dante, Paradise ,
Canto XXXIII, 2).
By putting our hand
in hers, we feel encouraged to walk more enthusiastically on the path of holiness.
Let us entrust to her our daily work and pray to her today for our dear departed,
in the intimate hope of meeting one another all together one day in the glorious
Communion of Saints.
SOLEMNITY
OF ALL SAINTS
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
St
Peter’s Squar, Saturday, 1 November 2008
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
Today we are celebrating
with great joy the feast of All Saints. Visiting a botanical nursery garden, one
is amazed by the variety of plants and flowers, and often one is drawn to think
of the imagination of the Creator who has given the earth a wonderful garden. A
similar feeling of wonder strikes us when we consider the spectacle of sainthood:
the world appears to us as a “garden”, where the Spirit of God has given life with
admirable imagination to a multitude of men and women Saints, of every age and social
condition, of every language, people and culture. Every one is different from the
other, each unique in his/her own personality and spiritual charism. All of them,
however, were impressed with the “seal” of Jesus (see Rv 7: 3) or the imprint of
his love witnessed through the Cross. They are all in joy, in a festival without
end, but, like Jesus, they achieved this goal passing through difficulties and trials
(see Rv 7: 14), each of them shouldering their own share of sacrifice in order to
participate in the glory of the Resurrection.
The Solemnity of
All Saints came to be affirmed in the course of the first Christian millennium as
a collective celebration of martyrs. Already in 609, in Rome , Pope Boniface IV had consecrated the
Pantheon, dedicating it to the Virgin Mary and to all the martyrs. Moreover,
we can understand this martyrdom in a broad sense, in other words, as love for Christ
without reserve, love that expresses itself in the total gift of self to God and
to the brethren. This spiritual destination, toward which all the baptized strive,
is reached by following the way of the Gospel “beatitudes”, as the liturgy of today’s
Solemnity indicates (see Mt 5: 1-12a). It is the same path Jesus indicated that
men and women Saints have striven to follow, while at the same time being aware
of their human limitations. In their earthly lives, in fact, they were poor in spirit,
suffering for sins, meek, hungering and thirsting for justice, merciful, pure of
heart, peacemakers, persecuted for the sake of justice. And God let them partake
in his very own happiness: they tasted it already in this world and in the next,
they enjoy it in its fullness. They are now consoled, inheritors of the earth, satisfied,
forgiven, seeing God whose children they are. In a word: “the reign of God is theirs”
(Mt 5: 3, 10).
On this day we feel
revive within us our attraction to Heaven, which impels us to quicken the steps
of our earthly pilgrimage. We feel enkindled in our hearts the desire to unite ourselves
forever to the family of Saints, in which already now we have the grace to partake.
As a famous spiritual song says: “Oh when the Saints, come marching in, oh how I
want to be in that number!” May this beautiful aspiration burn within all Christians,
and help them to overcome every difficulty, every fear, every tribulation! Let us
place, dear friends, our hand in Mary’s maternal hand, may the Queen of All Saints
lead us towards our heavenly homeland, in the company of the blessed spirits “from
every nation, people and language” (see Rv 7: 9). And already now we unite in prayer
in remembering our dear deceased, who we will commemorate tomorrow.
SOLEMNITY OF ALL SAINTS
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 1 November 2009
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
This Sunday coincides
with the Solemnity of All Saints, which invites the pilgrim Church
Subsequently, the
celebration of all the martyrs was extended to all the saints: “a great multitude
which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues”
(Rev 7: 9) according to St John .
In this Year for Priests, I would like to remember with special veneration all the
priest saints those whom the Church has canonized upholding them as examples of
spiritual and pastoral virtue, and those much more numerous who are known to the
Lord. Each one of us treasures a grateful memory of some of them who have helped
us to grow in faith and made us feel the goodness and closeness of God.
Tomorrow, then, is
the annual commemoration of All Souls’ Day, of all the faithful departed. I would
like to invite you to live this occasion in an authentic Christian spirit, that
is, in the light that comes from the Paschal Mystery. Christ died and rose again,
and has opened for us the way to the house of the Father, the Kingdom of life and
peace. Whoever follows Jesus in this life is welcome where he has preceded us. Therefore,
as we visit the cemeteries, let us remember that resting in those tombs are merely
the mortal remains of our dear ones who await the final resurrection. Their souls,
as Scripture tells us, are already “in the hand of God” (Wis 3: 1). Thus, the most proper and effective
way to honor them is to pray for them, offering acts of faith, hope and charity.
In union with the Eucharistic Sacrifice, we can intercede for their eternal salvation,
and experience the most profound communion in the expectation of being together,
enjoying forever the Love which created and redeemed us.
Dear friends, how
beautiful and comforting is the communion of Saints! It is a reality that instills
a different dimension into our whole life. We are never alone! We are part of a
spiritual “company” where profound solidarity reigns: the good of each one is for
the benefit of everyone, and vice versa, common happiness shines on every individual.
It is a mystery which, in some measure, we can already experience in this world,
in the family, in friendship, and especially in the spiritual community of the Church.
May Mary Most Holy help us to walk quickly on the way to holiness, and may she be
the Mother of mercy for the souls of the departed.
SOLEMNITY
OF ALL SAINTS
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
St
Peter’s Square, Monday, 1st November 2010
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
The Solemnity of
All Saints, which we celebrate today, invites us to raise our gaze to Heaven and
to meditate on the fullness of the divine life which awaits us. “We are God’s children
now; it does not yet appear what we shall be” (1 Jn 3:2): with these words the Apostle
John assures us of the reality of our profound relation to God, as too, of the certainty
of our destiny.
Like beloved children,
therefore, we also receive the grace to support the trials of this earthly existence
— the hunger and the thirst for justice, the misunderstandings, the persecutions
(see Mt 5:3-11) — and, at the same time, we inherit what is promised in the Gospel
Beatitudes: “promises resplendent with the new image of the world and of man inaugurated
by Jesus” (Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, Milan 2007, p. 72). The holiness,
imprinted in us by Christ himself, is the goal of Christian life. Blessed Antonio
Rosmini wrote: “The Word impressed himself in the souls of his disciples with his
physical presence... with his words... he had given to his own this grace... with
which the soul immediately perceives the Word” (Supernatural Anthropology,
Rome, 1983, pp. 265-266). And we have a foretaste of the gift and the beauty of
sanctity every time that we participate in the Eucharistic Liturgy, the communion
with the “great multitude” of holy souls, which in Heaven eternally acclaim the
salvation of God and of the Lamb (see Rev 7:9-10). “The lives of the Saints are
not limited to their earthly biographies but also include their being and working
in God after death. In the Saints one thing becomes clear: those who draw near to
God do not withdraw from men, but rather become truly close to them” (Deus Caritas
Est, no. 42).
Consoled by this
communion of the great family of Saints, tomorrow we shall commemorate all the faithful
departed. The Liturgy of 2 November and the pious exercise of visiting cemeteries
reminds us that Christian death is part of the journey toward becoming like God
and it will vanish when God will be all in all to everyone. The separation from
earthly affection is certainly painful, but we should not fear it, because it, accompanied
by the prayer and suffrage of the Church, it cannot break the profound bond that
unites us to Christ. As was previously said, St Gregory of Nyssa affirms: “He who
has created every thing in wisdom, has given this painful disposition as an instrument
of liberation from evil and the possibility to participate in separated goods” (De
Mortuis Oratio, IX, Leiden, 1967, p. 68).
Dear Friends, Eternity
is not an “unending succession of days in the calendar, but something more like
the supreme moment of satisfaction, in which totality embraces us and we embrace
totality” (Spe Salvi, no. 12). To the Virgin Mary, the sure guide to sanctity,
we entrust our pilgrimage to our heavenly home, while invoking her motherly intercession
for the eternal repose of all our brothers and sisters who have been laid to rest
in the hope of resurrection.
SOLEMNITY
OF ALL SAINTS
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
Saint
Peter’s Square, Tuesday, 1 November 2011
Dear
Brothers and Sisters,
The
Solemnity of All Saints is a favorable occasion to raise our gaze from earthly realities,
marked by time, to God’s dimension, the dimension of eternity and holiness.
Today’s
Liturgy reminds us that holiness is the original vocation of every baptized person
(see Lumen Gentium, no. 40). In fact, Christ, who with the Father and with
the Spirit alone is all holy (see Rev 15:4), loved the Church as his Bride and gave
himself up for her, in order to sanctify her (see Eph 5:25-26). For this reason
all members of the People of God are called to become holy, according to the Apostle
Paul’s affirmation: “For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thess
4:3). We are therefore invited to see the Church not only in her temporal and human
aspect, marked by fragility, but as Christ wanted her to be, that is, in “the communion
of saints” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 946). In the Creed
we profess that the Church is “holy”, holy since she is the Body of Christ, an instrument
of sharing in the sacred Mysteries — primarily in the Eucharist — and the family
of Saints, to whose protection we are entrusted on the day of our Baptism.
Today
we venerate this innumerable community of All Saints, who, through their different
paths of life, show us the various ways to holiness, united by a common denominator:
to follow Christ and conform ourselves to him, the ultimate goal of our alternating
human events. All the stages of life, in fact, can become ways of sanctification
with the action of grace and with the commitment and perseverance of each one.
Tomorrow,
2 November, is dedicated to the Commemoration of the faithful departed, it helps
us to remember our dear ones who have left us and all the souls on the journey to
the fullness of life, on the heavenly horizon of the Church, to which today’s Solemnity
has elevated us.
Since
the early days of the Christian faith, the earthly Church, recognizing the communion
of the whole mystical body of Jesus Christ, has honored with deep respect the memory
of the dead, she offers suffrage for them. Our prayer for the dead is therefore
not only useful but necessary, as it can not only help them, but also make their
intercession for us effective (see Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.
958). Also visiting cemeteries, while preserving the ties of affection with those
who loved us in this life, reminds us that we are all going towards another life,
beyond death. May the tears, due to earthly departure, not prevail over the certainty
of the resurrection, over the hope of reaching eternal beatitude, “the supreme moment
of satisfaction, in which totality embraces us and we embrace totality” (Spe
Salvi, no. 12).
The
object of our hope is to rejoice in the presence of God in eternity. Jesus promised
this to his disciples, saying: “I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice,
and no one will take your joy from you” (Jn 16:22).
Let
us entrust to the Virgin Mary, Queen of All Saints, our pilgrimage towards the heavenly
homeland, as we invoke her maternal intercession for our departed brothers and sisters.
SOLEMNITY
OF ALL SAINTS
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
Saint
Peter’s Square, Thursday, 1 November 2012
Dear
Brothers and Sisters,
Today
we have the joy of meeting on the Solemnity of All Saints. This feast day helps
us to reflect on the double horizon of humanity, which we symbolically express with
the words “earth” and “heaven”: the earth represents the journey of history, heaven
eternity, the fullness of life in God. And so this feast day helps us to think about
the Church in its dual dimension: the Church journeying in time and the Church that
celebrates the never-ending feast, the heavenly Jerusalem . These two dimensions are united by
the reality of the “Communion of Saints”: a reality that begins here on earth and
that reaches its fulfillment in heaven.
On earth,
the Church is the beginning of this mystery of communion that unites humanity, a
mystery totally centered on Jesus Christ: it is he who introduced this new dynamic
to mankind, a movement that leads towards God and at the same time towards unity,
towards peace in its deepest sense. Jesus Christ — says the Gospel of John (11:52)
— died “to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad”, and his
work continues in the Church which is inseparably “one”, “holy” and “catholic”.
Being a Christian, being part of the Church means being open to this communion,
like a seed that dies in the ground, germinates and sprouts upwards, toward heaven.
The
Saints — those proclaimed by the Church and whom we celebrate today and also those
known only to God — have lived this dynamic intensely. In each of them, in a very
personal way, Christ made himself present, thanks to his Spirit which acts through
Scripture and the Sacraments. In fact, being united to Christ, in the Church, does
not negate one’s personality, but opens it, transforms it with the power of love,
and confers on it, already here on earth, an eternal dimension.
In essence,
it means being conformed to the image of the Son of God (see Rom 8:29), fulfilling
the plan of God who created man in his own image and likeness. But this insertion
in Christ also opens us — as I said — to communion with all the other members of
his Mystical Body which is the Church, a communion that is perfect in “Heaven”,
where there is no isolation, no competition or separation. In today’s feast, we
have a foretaste of the beauty of this life fully open to the gaze of love of God
and neighbour, in which we are sure to reach God in each other and each other in
God. With this faith-filled hope we honor all the Saints, and we prepare to commemorate
the faithful departed tomorrow. In the Saints we see the victory of love over selfishness
and death: we see that following Christ leads to life, eternal life, and gives meaning
to the present, every moment that passes, because it is filled with love and hope.
Only faith in eternal life makes us truly love history and the present, but without
attachment, with the freedom of the pilgrim, who loves the earth because his heart
is set on Heaven.
© Copyright 2014 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Book by Orestes J. González
