Solemnity of All
Saints
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You may or may not be aware that the Holy
Father’s household has an official preacher. The present
papal preacher is a very gifted Capuchin priest called
Father Raniero (Cantalamessa). I was reading Father
Raniero’s thoughts for today’s Feast of All Saints and he
began with what seemed to me like quite an original thought.
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He observed that for a long time
scientists have been sending messages deep into space in the
hope of getting an answer from intelligent life on another
planet. But the amazing thing is that the Church has always
carried on a dialogue with the inhabitants of another world.
These inhabitants of another world are the saints whom we
honour today on this Feast of All Saints. “Blessed are those
who hunger and thirst for what is right”, says Jesus in
today’s Gospel. The saints are those men and women who did
not accept mediocrity. They had a hunger for goodness and
for right living. They sought holiness. The saints are not
just those listed in the calendar, but these are also the
unknown saints who gave their lives for others, martyrs for
duty, for justice and freedom who, without knowing it,
“washed their robes white again in the blood of the Lamb”,
as today’s first reading from the Book of the Apocalypse
puts. These and others are All Saints whom we honour and
venerate today. These and other have shown us the way to
holiness and the way to heaven.
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And, coming back to the idea of another
world, even if there were intelligent beings on some planet
in a far off solar system, communication would be almost
impossible because, between the question we send and the
answer we await, millions of years would have to pass. In
our communication with the saints, however, the answer is
immediate because we have a common centre of communication
and encounter, and that is the Risen Christ whose presence
and power surpasses all the limits of time and distance.
This is what the Church means when we profess that we
believe in the communion of saints: the sharing of good
things in Christ with All the Saints, with the holy ones who
have gone before us and who pray for us and call to us so
that we might be with them in the glory of Christ.
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There is no doubt, then, that the Feast
of All Saints calls us to raise our eyes to heaven, where
the saints are with Christ. Many people wonder what heaven
will be like. Father Raniero concludes his remarks with an
apt little story. One day, a saint called Saint Simeon (the
New Theologian) had such an experience of God that he
exclaimed to himself: “This must be what heaven is like.
This is all I need!” But then he heard the voice of Christ
who said: “You are deluded if you
content yourself with this. The joy you have experienced in
comparison to paradise is like the sky painted on paper in
comparison to the real sky.” We pray today that with
all the Saints that we will one day come to the
inexpressible joys of heaven.
St. Mirin’s Cathedral
1st November 2007
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