Today we celebrate the feast of all the saints who are now in heaven. The Church reminds us that sanctity is within everyone’s reach. Through the communion of saints we help one another achieve sanctity.
There are very many saints throughout the history of the Church who have been honored with their own feast day because of some extraordinary act of faith, hope or love. However, there are also many more “saints” whose stories we do not know, but who have also been given a place in heaven in the communion of saints. What makes this reality so beautiful is that none of these saints acted out of a “spirit of competition” to outdo another for his or her personal glory. All of them acted out of the love for God and for his neighbor even in the midst of great adversity and suffering.
The call to sanctity is universal. Sanctity is not impossible to attain. If it were, then no one could ever enter the kingdom of God. In Jesus it is made possible. In today’s Gospel Jesus is preaching his Sermon on the Mount. He’s teaching his disciples and the crowd the “beatitudes.” Cutting the word in two we get “be attitudes.” These are proper attitudes of being. They are totally different from the attitudes we develop, shaped as we are by our worldly environment. Death respects no age; anyone can die anytime, any day. Since we cling to our freedom of choice, why not choose what is certain and true – everlasting life with God and all his saints?
