01st November - All Saints Day

All Saints Day is a celebration of the communion of saints in heaven and on earth. It is a feast against solitude and isolation which hurt the human heart so much: if we did not believe in the "communion of saints", as we declare each time we profess our faith by reciting the creed, we would be closed in a desperate solitude. On this day we renew our Paschal chant since whilst at Easter we contemplate the risen Christ who is forever at the right hand of the Father, today thanks of the energy of resurrection, we contemplate all those who are forever living with Christ at the right hand of the Father: the saints. Today we contemplate those who have died for Christ, with Christ and in Christ and are now forever living with Him, and since we are all members of the same body of Christ and they are glorious members of the glorious body of Christ, we are in communion together, pilgrim church with heavenly church, forming one unique body of God.

In Christ, there is  a certain intimacy between us and the saints, which supercedes all our other relationships here on earth: they pray for us, intercede for us, they are close to us like friends who never disappoint us. And their closeness is able to produce wonders since their will is now the same as God's will made manifest in Christ: it is no longer they who live but Christ in them, since they have reached the goal of each Christian vocation, that of assuming Christ's will: "Not my will but yours be done Father" (Lk 22, 42). Sustained by those who have walked this pilgrimage before us, we discover saints who still operate on earth since the seed of the saints is not close to extinction: having fallen to the ground it is producing fruit up until today. "Look, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?" Is 43, 19

Unfortunately, today this memory of saints is being made seem empty by the celebration of Halloween: which is another sign of how are society is slipping insensibly from what is real into what is virtual. From an invisible world, which is however authentic and real, the world of the communion of saints is being substituted by a world which is invisible but imaginary, a fiction made up by us humans for our consolation. No, the communion of saints can be experimented, lived: we are not alone here on earth because in the resurrected Christ we are "communicantes in unum"!   

(thoughts taken from: Dare senso al tempo by Enzo Bianchi) 

BIBLICAL READINGS

Rev 7, 2-4. 9-14;  1 John 3, 1-3;    Mt 5, 1-12

Prayer

Father, All-Powerful and ever-living God,
today we rejoice in the holy men and women
of every time and place.
May their prayers bring us your forgiveness and love
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.Liturgy of the Hours