Thought for the week - 30 October

“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”

This celebration of All Saints goes back to the first centuries AD, and was originally kept on the first Sunday after Pentecost. The old pagan temple, the Pantheon in Rome,  sacred to all the gods of Rome was consecrated as a church in honour of St. Mary and the Martyrs on 13th May. The feast was probably brought to England by St. Egbert, Archbishop of York. We know that it was celebrated in 800 AD on the1st November.

The Pantheon in Rome was consecrated to all the martyrs who were seen as replacing and driving out the old gods.  In the same way perhaps, in northern Europe 1st November had been the day in which the gods of winter had been celebrated. And so the day was appropriated by the church as the day on which the saints would be venerated.

So much for the brief history of All Saints; but what does it mean to us today?  We could say that All Saints is the feast of the ordinary saints of the Church, that huge number, impossible to count, of every nation, race, tribe and language. It is the feast of mothers and fathers who have been gentle and merciful. It is the feast of those in every age who have been pure in heart. It is the feast of all those who have been peacemakers and thirsted for what is right.  It is the feast of all those who mourn the sadness that is in the world and seek to do something about it.  It is the feast of all those who have been persecuted for the cause of right.

It’s about remembering ordinary people who have really been quite extraordinary. We have all met them.

It’s about those who are not formally recognized by the Church. Some of them will be remembered as kind old relatives, or as neighbours who were always there and for whom nothing was too much trouble. There are others whom we will have met but will have not realized the depth of their gentle and merciful love.

The feast of All Saints is also a sign of hope that heaven is full. The Church is not a small isolated group of people, but a communion of men, women and children united in faith and hope and love. The feast of All Saints is also a sign of faith in the forgiveness of sins; because heaven is full of repentant sinners. Heaven is full of those whom St. Luke’s Gospel refers to as “the poor.”  People who quietly trust God whatever the world might throw at them.

Heaven is full of those who have quietly loved their neighbour, no matter who that neighbour might be. In other words the feast is about heaven being for ordinary normal people – even people like you and me. The saints are people who are able to love their neighbours as themselves. And who is my neighbour?

In a world of wars and of religious and racial tension that is a good question to ask. And who is my neighbour?  Is it the Moslem whom we might  fear? Is it the illegal immigrant or asylum seeker? And do we hunger and thirst that right might prevail, not just for ourselves, but for others also. In today’s complex world of international politics and global business it is not an easy task to ask for mercy and justice, particularly for the poor and the oppressed.  In today’s world it is not easy to be a saint. But thank God there are still lots of them around, unsung heroes whose praise we sing today.

The saints are those who try to live out human life fully. The saints are those who love God and who love neighbour. The saints love greatly like the loving God in whose image and likeness we are all created. It is that generous, compassionate and overflowing love which is the mark of the true saint.

The Christian hope which underlies this feast of All Saints is summed up for us by those words of St. John

“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”  

The saints have gone before us and now see him as he is and rest continually in his presence.