In November 1887, the founder of the Paullist
Fathers, Isaac Thomas Hecker, wrote: “When, in 1843, I first read in the
catechism of the Council of Trent the doctrine of the communion of saints, it
went right home. It alone was to me a heavier weight on the Catholic side of
the scales than the best historical argument which could be presented. … The
body made alive by such truths ought to be of divine life and its origin
traceable to a divine establishment.”
By 1887, some 44 years had passed since Hecker’s
encounter with the Catechism and its exposition of Article IX of the Apostles
Creed, “I believe in … the communion of saints,” but the passage of time had
done nothing to dull the impact of what he had found there. Appropriately so, since the Communion
of Saints celebrates the bonds that connect us - not only across space, but
even more profoundly across time. Uniting past and present, it permeates the
Church’s worship and punctuates the Church’s calendar with its many feasts and
memorials of saints, culminating today in this great annual celebration in
honor of all the Saints. All Saints Day celebrates in particular that
part of the communion of saints known as “the Church Triumphant” – not just the
thousands of saints officially recognized by the Church, but all the
holy men and women, known and unknown, who have already attained the goal for
which we here still strive. Living now forever with God and praising him
for ever in heaven, the saints - that great
multitude from every nation, race, people, and tongue of whom we heard in
today’s 1st reading [Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14] help us by interceding
on our behalf, uniting their prayers with ours. In the words of the familiar
hymn: O blest communion, fellowship
divine! We feebly struggle; they in glory shine; yet all are one within your
great design.
The regular reference to and
invocation of the saints, not just today but in every Mass, signifies
our communion, as the struggling Church on earth, with the triumphant Church in
heaven, and reminds us that the Church’s mission in this world is to mirror
(however imperfectly) that heavenly community and so transform the world - with
love and forgiveness - according to the hope that is Jesus Christ’s great gift
to his Church and the Church’s gift to the world.
As one of the seasonal
turning points in the ancient Celtic calendar, November 1 was once the
beginning not only of winter but of a new year, the eve of which was a
frightening in-between time when the spirits of the dead were thought to roam
about and possibly even try to haunt their old homes. Bonfires and jack-o-lanterns (originally carved out of
turnips) were part of the defense of the living against assaults from the other
world. The celebration of all the Saints on November 1 represented the
Christianization of that old seasonal holiday - a celebration of Christianity’s
triumph over paganism and of Christ’s victory (as exemplified in the
saints) over the demonic forces, which had hitherto held people in fear.
Deliberately celebrated on this day after
Halloween, All Saints Day celebrates the hope that replaces fear, exemplified
in the lives of the saints and experienced by us in our continued communion
with them – a communion which challenges that great opponent of human hope,
death, by connecting us not only with the saints already in heaven but with all
who have gone before us with the sign of
faith.
Homily for
All Saints Day, Immaculate Conception Church, Knoxville, TN, November 1, 2012
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