This week, our Catholic faith celebrates the Solemnity of All Saints (a.k.a. “All Saints’ Day”). Our faith, indeed, teaches us that there is a whole host of people who are in Heaven enjoying the Beatific Vision, aside from those whom the Church has declared specifically (that is, canonized). This is the day in our liturgical year when we celebrate those holy men and women.
This
annual celebration should provide an opportunity for us to think about the
saints whom we have known in our lives, those men and women who have led holy
lives but who haven’t been officially canonized. Each year as I ponder this reality, I come to
understand more and more fully that I have known legitimate saints. And I come to understand that the list of
such people is growing year after year.
So, I want to tell you briefly about a couple of the saints whom I have
known, and I want to remind you of how you should act to commemorate any saints
whom you have known.
One
man whom I am quite certain occupies a place in the communion of saints is
named Dale. I am fairly certain that
Dale’s prayers for me are one of the biggest reasons that I am now
Catholic. He prayed me into the Church!
When
I attended Dale’s funeral, I didn’t pray for the repose of his soul as I
usually do at funerals. Instead, I asked
Dale to pray for me because I had a powerful sense that he was already enjoying
full communion with God, and that I need his help to attain the same. This is one of the key markers of a saint:
that we ask for their prayers because we know they have a direct and deep
connection with the Lord.
Another
saint I have known is Patsy. Patsy was
on my RCIA team at the parish where I work.
She liked to claim that she was the longest-serving RCIA team member in
the United States. For thirty-five years
she came faithfully to assist in shepherding people into the Church. She was so dedicated that she even escaped
nursing home security on several occasions to be there!
From
Patsy I learned the value of suffering for the Lord and for others. Not only did I learn the value of it, but I
learned the way to do it. Patsy lived in
terrible pain. For the last several months
that I knew her, she lived with a fracture in her hip. Yet, she always greeted me and RCIA
candidates joyfully, offering her prayers for our sufferings and never
mentioning her own. I cannot think of a
person I have known who suffered more, yet who brought more light to groups of
people who were searching for truth.
There
are probably other legitimate saints whom I have known in my relatively short
life. I’m sure there are saints whom my
readers have known, too. So, how should
we approach and honor these holy men and women, even if they are not proclaimed
“saint” by the Church?
The
first thing that we can do is to tell their stories. The only way that the saints have become
popular, powerful intercessors on our behalf is because we have come to know then
through their stories. We have connected
with them about particular details. We
should do the same with these yet-to-be-canonized saints. Tell about their lives. Tell about their habits of holiness. Tell about their heroic suffering and even-more-heroic
virtue. That will allow more people to
know them, love them, and ask for their intercession.
Asking
for their intercession is exactly the thing to do next. After all, we believe that the saints have
special intercessory power; and we believe that these men and women are
saints. Our litanies of saints shouldn’t
only contain Michael, Benedict, Francis, and Teresa. We should include the Dales and Patsies whom
we know. How will the necessary miracles
be attributed to their intercession if we do not begin asking them to intercede
for us?
Finally,
we must ask these holy men and women to share with us the communion that they
are already experiencing. We have the
ability, and the right, to ask them to show us the way to the Father. Dale can show me the way by devoted prayer to
God through the Blessed Mother. Patsy
can show me the way of redemptive suffering.
I need to ask them constantly to help me learn those truths, and to help
me come to see and know the Trinity more fully.
The modern world is a difficult place, and it will only get more difficult because of the crisis of faith and secularism that we are facing. If we are to face that crisis, and to overcome it, we need to call upon the intercession of those who already stand and worship before the throne of God. We need the help of Augustines and Aquinases as well as the help of Dales and Patsies. Let’s begin by asking the saints we know simply to “Pray for us.”
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