Men and Women for All Seasons!

Friday, November 1, 2024

Solemnity of All Saints

Rv 7:2-4; 9-14; 1 Jn 3:1-3; Mt 5:1-12

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints.

When we pray the Apostles’ Creed, we profess, ‘I believe in the communion of saints.’ 

Who are saints? Saints are defined as ‘Persons in heaven (officially canonized or not), who lived heroically virtuous lives, offered their lives for others, or were martyred for the faith, and who are worthy of imitation.’

If we want a distinction between All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, which we celebrate tomorrow, it is that ‘those who are with God in heaven are saints, and those who are on their way to heaven are souls we pray for.’

Since All Saints’ Day celebrates men and women who have achieved spiritual maturity, today’s celebration calls for imitating their lives. 

As regards imitation of saints, there are two models.  

1.Saints as Patrons: The patron model puts before us the exemplary character of saints and invites us to learn from their pure and holy lives. But can we imitate the saints in their profound radicality always? For instance, St. Catherine of Siena is said to have fasted for seven years before her death, only consuming the Eucharist. Sometimes, it is hard for us to imitate the holy lives and extraordinary sacrifices of some of the saints. Then how is imitation of saints possible?

2. Saints as Companions: While the patron model celebrates the pure, holy, and spotless lives of saints, the companion model presents the earthy, struggling, and imperfect humans, who could climb the steps of holiness despite all these challenges. These saints showed us that holiness makes its home in humanity. Hence, when we look at saints as our companions who were like us in everything, we gain the courage to overcome the needless despair and frustration and evolve into holy people. They help us understand that holiness is a process, and it depends on building a virtuous life lived in accordance with the expectations of God. 

While these two models help us in our faith journey, some Christian scholars broaden the definition of saints and include ideal secular leaders and mystics whose lives and sacrifices were worthy of imitation. We can think of leaders like Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. and engaged mystics like Thomas Merton and Simon Weil. 

While all these insights are certain aids for us to grow in our spiritual wisdom, we earnestly believe that the saints intercede for us in heaven. 

For instance, before his death, Saint Dominic said, ‘Do not weep, for I shall be more useful to you after my death, and I shall help you then more effectively than during my life.’ 

Christians are edified not only by the exemplary lives of saints but also by their power of intercession through the very fact of leading holy and blameless lives. 

If we believe that the saints are already with God, it is also true that they will procure blessings from God through their power of intercession.

A Man for All Seasons is a play by Robert Bolt based on the life of Sir Thomas More, the 16^th century English lawyer, statesman, and philosopher who opposed King Henry VIII’s decision to break away from the Roman Catholic Church. 

Over time the idiomatic expression came to describe a person whose conscience and moral strength do not bend with different times and seasons. 

This expression rightly captures what men and women saints have achieved through their holiness and steadfastness. Indeed, they are ‘Men and Women for All Seasons!’

Let us pray that we may imitate the saints worthily so that we may be where they are today.

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar