All Saints Day- A call to holiness

All Saints Day- A call to holiness

All Saints Day reminds us that we are all called to be saints by being Christians to the core. We do not aim to attain this mystical state with the vain hope of being venerated as such as in our churches: this particular motivation would go directly against the grain of holiness whose dominant characteristic is the virtue of humility.

Here, sainthood is understood in the context of endeavouring constantly to overcome sin by practising faithfully the tenets of our Faith, communicating Christ’s message of fraternal love to others and trying earnestly to save our souls redeemed by the precious Blood of Christ on the Cross. 

This personal salvific commitment is not so easy to carry out. We do not need to worry how many people will be saved but we need to take the warning of Jesus in the Scripture ‘to strive to enter through the narrow gate” (Luke 13:22-30). 

The throng of Christian martyrs for the sake of Christ and his teaching s has confirm that human sufferings are as nothing compared with the bliss of heaven. At the same time, there is danger that in realising the weakness of our human nature and our failures we may misjudge ourselves as part worthy or capable of attaining saintliness and so give up. Christ’s advice to us is not negative, but rather a realistic affirmation that eternal salvation is a precious treasure for which the Christ ought to work hard to possess. The parable of the precious pearl is highly relevant, since the interested person would sacrifice and sell all he would owned to buy it. 

The saints we admire for their heroics acts in upholding sound morality and their staunch faith despite ridicule and adversity were in fact ordinary people like ourselves; they trusted in God completely, persevered in prayer and lived contented and fulfilled lives with the hope of eternal glory. Through their edifying example of joyful love of Christ and their exceptional gift of communication, they succeeded in evangelising and drawing to the Lord both spiritually good and lukewarm people. 

Reading the lives of the saints we notice how these privileged Christians were able to live in awareness of the presence of God and in constant communion with Him through prayer. This in turn helped them to interact more effectively with their fellow men and to live in peace. This style of human relation based of the perennials Christian principles prove to be a cultural turning point and an inspiring trend in history. 

Sacred Scripture warns us to be always be on guard against temptations. While on earth the saints encountered adverse situations but remained determined to be Christians worthy of their calling, allowing nothing to separate them from Christ- as the beautiful hymn’ Faith of our fathers so aptly describes it- ‘dungeon, fire or word’.

So, let us be hearted by this wonderful feast day. It is a feast filled joy for the Church triumphant- our fellow human beings who have fought the good fight and have won the prize of heaven. It is a feast day filled with hope for us, the pilgrim Church, who are still striving to live good Christian lives but are aware of our weaknesses and failures. 

Let us continue to strive to answer the call to holiness each day, desire with our hearts and lives to reach our homeland in Heaven, and come one day to meet our loving God face to face.