Homily for All Saints/Souls - November 7, 2010

Today we thank God for the great example of faithful Christians who lived before us.

In our first reading Daniel envisions a world that a Holy One of God will eventually control. This is the most recently written book in the Old Testament (about 165 BC). The first six chapters are stories about Daniel set at the Babylonian and Persian courts. The remainder of the book is visions about the end times. In the passages that have been clipped out of today’s reading we hear about the destruction of the four beasts and the coming of “an Achent One” who sits in judgment. Then comes the arrival of one like a “Son of Man” to whom the Achent One gives everlasting dominion. Christians from the earliest records have associated this with Jesus. The gathering of the multitude in this last scene is what pertains to the celebration of All Saints/All Souls celebration today.

In our second reading Paul gives praise and encouragement to the Ephesians. He writes to the “saints,” i.e., those faithful to Christ in Ephesus. His message is straight forward: through Christ’s birth, life, death and resurrection we are absolved of our deviations from God’s ways. Intellectually and through our experience of the Christian way we have come to know God’s plan, i.e., to “gather up” all God has created, seen and unseen, to Christ.

From Luke we heard the Beatitudes, a listing of the virtues of the holy people of God - the saints. Some words are used in ways we may not appreciate immediately. For example: the “poor” are those who acknowledge their dependence on God. Where as, the “rich” do not want to commit themselves to Jesus and the Kingdom; they are comfortable in their self-sufficiency. The “hungry” are those who hunger for the word of God, the good news and the “full” are those satisfied or filled with God’s word. When he says: “blessed are you when . . . they exclude you”; he means being socially ostracized and excluded from the synagogue and Temple.

Many scholars believe the celebration we mark with these readings to have originated in Ireland, spread from there to England, and then to the continent of Europe. That it had reached Rome and had been adopted there early in the ninth century is attested by a letter of Gregory the Fourth who was Pope around the middle of the 800s. However, the desire of Christian people to express the intercommunion of the living and the dead in the Body of Christ is much older.

Gregory the Wonder Worker, writing before the year 270, refers to the observance of a festival of all martyrs, though he does not date it. A hundred years later, Ephrem the Deacon mentions such an observance in Edessa on May 13. Finally, John Chrysostom, who died in 407, says that a festival of All Saints was observed on the first Sunday after Pentecost in Constantinople at the time he was bishop there.

One saint who has especially been a meaningful example in my life is Vincent de Paul who was added to our calendar by the 2009 General Convention (Sep. 27). He is noted for his work among the most needy and suffering people of his day. Especially for his tireless drive to go beyond helping with the necessities of life. He pushed for service to meet their spiritual needs and for education to help permanently lift them out of poverty. He worked closely with Louise de Marillac and the two of them inspired Elizabeth Ann Seton (Jan. 4) and Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

We all need the example of others to inspire and guided us through this life. Following Jesus can take a myriad of expressions. It is important that we ask ourselves: who are the exemplary persons of faith that are important to you? Who inspires you to follow Christ more closely? Whose Christian example helps you through the confusing reality of this world?