Hey, there Church Fans. Since the technomancers were messing with the electrons last week, here is a belated All Saints Day Post. The Vid can be seen here. The homily is at 21:08.
We live in interesting times. But then again, we really are no exception to any other time in history. If you want to understand what is going on culturally today, read the essays of G.K. Chesterton where he dismantles the tenets of the secular humanists in the early 20th century. Their arguments are the same as they are today (and just as easily dismantled). It’s just that their movement has become more organized and utilized the internet.
Chesterton joined the Catholic Church in the middle of his life, finding in it a rational and well-founded intellectual tradition that elucidated the truth. In addition to having a powerful intellect and an awesome command of the English language, he was also a very pragmatic man. When asked to describe the Catholic Church, he quipped, “Here comes everybody.”
His quotation comes to mind as I read the description of the heavenly liturgy from the Book of Revelation. After the 144,000, John sees a “great multitude which no one could count from every nation, race, people, and tongue.” All of them are wearing white robes and all are holding palm branches. The white robe symbolizes that their sins are washed clean in the blood of the Lamb. The palm branch is a symbol of victory, in this case, victory over sin and death.
It is vitally important that you and I see ourselves as part of that white-robed multitude when they come marching in. Do you want to be in that number?
The Solemnity of All Saints celebrates ALL saints – those who are canonized and honored in the Christian Hall of Fame (so to speak), as well as all those who are in heaven along with them even if they are not listed in the Church calendar…and all of us who are still on our pilgrim way.
Like the Cross, the communion of saints that we profess in the Apostles Creed has a vertical element and a horizontal one. The vertical one includes all those who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith. The horizontal one includes all the rest of us on this earthly plane. Here comes everybody.
You are called to be a great saint. Please don’t settle for anything less.