Reflections on All Saints

“Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.” Heb 12:1

The Saints are a living part of our life in the mystical Body of Christ.  They are integral members of the Church, some of whom, as I often put it, have merely changed their address in the Kingdom.  They are for us the living embodiment of the great holy Tradition of the life of this Body down through not just two but even more millennia, for we count amongst them those who believed in Christ before His Incarnation, those we will commemorate one week hence as the Patriarchs and Prophets of the Old Law.  And there are those living among us today, often hidden from view.

St. Paul, in the short passage I began with, which comes from the 1st Vesper readings for this Feast, uses his common linking word “wherefore”.  His exhortation is that, since this great multitude of fellow disciples of Christ are here surrounding us even now, cheering us on in the race we began at Baptism and will run until it is finished, there are certain things that should concern us.

First, we should lay aside every weight.  There are so many things in this life which would seek to weigh us down, that make the paces of this race more difficult; the distance seem so long, that make us feel as heavy as when in a dream we try but can‘t run…

That weariness when our very body feels heavier than normal, like we are carrying a pack of rocks on our back.  There is a spiritual heaviness, a general malaise with spiritual things – when anything seems more interesting or enticing than the Word of God, or prayer, or the lives of the Saints, for example.  These weights are most often products of worry about the future or futile concern about the past.  We can only prepare for the one, and only repent of the latter, and we can only do so in the present moment.  That is where we live, and move and have our being.

St. Paul says we are to lay those weights, those burdens aside.  And the sin which so easily besets us.  How do we lay aside sin?  Not an easy task, to be sure.  Our very lack of sanctity tells us how far we are from perfection, and yet the Saints remind us that it is the only real thing in this life.

Sanctity is nothing other than our closeness to God, and sin is the only thing which draws us back from His presence.  He doesn’t move, or stop the flow of His grace…we do.  Once again, the remedy isn’t to sit and bewail the fact, but repent and get on with the task of what lies before us in the moment.

To turn away from our self-preoccupation and look to our Master Who seeks to fashion us more and more perfectly into those who are able to simply live in Him, to listen to Him, to obey His voice, as His Words become increasingly written upon our hearts and indeed become a part of our inner life.

Each year the feast of All Saints reminds us that God’s sanctifying work is ever the same.  In every age, His grace has been transforming men and women into those who become increasingly transparent and more effective imagers of God who are increasingly manifesting His likeness.

From the beginning He has fashioned His Saints; Apostles & Evangelists, Martyrs, Confessors, Virgins & Matrons, Abbots & Abbesses, and “commoners”.  What made them Saints was that their hearts were ever aspiring towards God.  When they missed the mark of holiness, as they sometimes did, they repented and strove more faithfully to obedience.

Finally, perfection is nothing more than being who we were made to be…the image and likeness of God.  Being “normal” human persons.

We commemorate them again today, the known and unknown Saints of God, thankful that even now, He is fashioning Saints, people who love Him with all their heart, and their neighbor as themselves, and finally, even their enemies.  Thankful that in union with His grace, all of us have the potential to reign with Him in glory.

It is a joyous reality, and they are all present with us even now, united in one communion and fellowship, making Eucharist to the One True God, through His Son Jesus Christ, in His Spirit.