By Fr. Antony Christy, SDB –
Solemnity of All Saints: November 1, 2019
Revelation 7: 2-4,9-14; 1 John 3:1-3; Matthew 5: 1-12a
O when the saints,
go marching in,
I want to be in that number! –
… a simple but profound thought in those familiar lines of the song. To be saints: that is God’s call to each of us. At times we think, becoming saints is reserved for a select few. May be the long and tedious process of canonisation of a person in the Church, makes us feel that way. But the fact is, each of us is, all of us are called to be saints. St. Paul states that in clear and unequivocal terms in his letter to the Ephesians (1:4), Thessalonians (1 thes 4:3), and other various other places.
The question sometimes is, whether it is being a saint or becoming a saint! We are created in the image and likeness of God (says Genesis 1:27) and this image and likeness of God is a “given”, a nature that we have within us, as a gift. We are reminded of this image and likeness at our baptism and invited to grow in it, towards the fullness of it. All the we need to do is to remain with that image in our lives. The beautiful symbol used in the rite of baptism, where the priest hands over a white cloth to the child and entrusts the task of bringing it back, as it were, unsullied, intact in its purity to the end of days.That, dear friends, is the call – “to be saints”…and not merely to ‘become’ saints.
The WORD today, develops the same thought in three wonderful dimensions:
Being Saints means… being aware of who we are! O Christian, realise your dignity! We are children of God, reminds St. John in his letter, in the second reading. God has chosen us from eternity, before the foundation of the world! This is an initiative from God our Father and Mother, who creates us and wishes that we share in God’s love and ever remain in God’s image and likeness, as children of the loving God.
Being Saints means… being washed by the blood of the Lamb! The Image of God within us, sometimes is disturbed, smudged, smeared or sullied by the choices we make misusing the human freedom that is granted to us. The evil one will be more than happy when we lose heart at such moments and give up. The Son of God, our Saviour Jesus Christ shed his blood that we may have victory over sin and death. In that blood we are saved, and in that blood we are made clean, each and every time we turn to the Lord in genuine repentance and willingness to regain our original image. Saints are those who have their garments washed in the blood of the Lamb, says the second reading.
Being Saints means… being ‘blessed’ in the eyes of the Lord! And the only way to be ‘blessed’, is to live by the promptings of the Spirit who dwells within us. Paying attention to the indwelling Spirit, we will know what it means to be blessed – to be poor in spirit, to be meek, to hunger and thirst for righteousness, to be merciful, to be peace-loving – these are ways of being persons of the spirit. In the ordinariness of our daily life, we have to be persons of the Spirit, looking at the reality different from the way the self seeking world teaches us to.
God’s initiative in the call that I have received; Christ’s redeeming act of Salvation; the Spirit’s indwelling presence that guides me on a daily basis – these are compelling reasons why I need to think seriously about, not merely becoming a saint one day, but being a saint everyday, in my own way!
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005, who has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (Specialisation in Catechetics). He is currently pursuing his doctoral research in Theology at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the Young towards a World of Peace and Dialogue is the passion that fires him