St John never understood sanctity as a distant goal far beyond our grasp
The Solemnity of All Saints is, above all else, the celebration of a living community: the Communion of Saints. While this celebration rejoices in the saints who have gone before us, it celebrates equally the sanctity, as yet imperfect, of the Church on earth.
We are, by baptism, saints in the making. Already, by our sharing in Christ’s death and Resurrection, we have become a holy people, a communion of saints. St Paul urges us to live lives worthy of our calling. “If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ, who is the head, by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength. So the body grows until it has built itself up in love” (Eph 4:16).
In the same passage Paul describes our destiny. As those called to be saints, we are being formed into “the perfect Man, fully mature with the fullness of Christ himself”. The Book of Revelation, formed against a background of rejection and persecution, confidently expressed the hope to which we are called.
The persecution of the early Church mocked the Gospel and everything that it represented. Despite their frailty, these early Christians entrusted themselves to Christ’s presence among them. Their vision puts into words the wonder that awaits all the faithful: “After that
I saw a huge number, impossible to count, of people from every nation, race, tribe and language; they were standing in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb. They shouted aloud: ‘Victory to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’ ”
The details of this vision might well seem alien to modern understanding. Their underlying truth is for every generation. Our longing to become like Christ, to live with him as saints, is not a groundless fantasy. It is rooted in the Risen Lord, whose power at work within us conquers sin, freeing us to become the saints he created in his own likeness.
Writing to newly baptised Christians, St John never understood sanctity as a distant goal far beyond our grasp. He underlines a truth that we are so often reluctant to recognise in ourselves. Because the Father has loved us in our sinfulness, we are already on the way to sanctity. “Think of the love that the Father has lavished on us, by letting us be called God’s children; and that is what we are.”
When we surrender ourselves to the Father’s love, the future, despite its uncertainties, is assured. “My dear people, we are already the children of God, but what we are to be in the future has not yet been revealed. All we know is that we shall be like him because we shall see him as he really is.”
The sum of human longing in answered in this promise; that one day we shall look into the face of God, and in that exchange the Father will recognise in us the likeness of his Son.
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus described the life of a saint. It is in a humility that acknowledges its poverty, a compassion that is merciful, and a peace that reconciles, that the likeness of Christ is revealed in us. Above all, it is in a hunger and thirst for what is right, for God’s ways, that we grow in holiness. A secular society might not understand sanctity, but it is certainly drawn to its presence. On the solemnity of All Saints, let us remember that the first fruit of holiness is the spread of the Gospel.
