Why should our praise and
glorification, or even the celebration of this feast day mean anything to the
saints? What do they care about earthly honors when their heavenly Father
honors them by fulfilling the faithful promise of the Son? What does our commendation
mean to them?
The saints have no need of honor
from us; neither does our devotion add the slightest thing to what is theirs.
Clearly, if we venerate their memory, it serves us, not them. But I tell you,
when I think of them, I feel myself inflamed by a tremendous yearning.
Calling the saints to mind inspires,
or rather arouses in us, above all else, a longing to enjoy their company, so
desirable in itself. We long to share in the citizenship of heaven, to dwell
with the spirits of the blessed, to join the assembly of patriarchs, the ranks
of the prophets, the council of apostles, the great host of martyrs, the noble
company of confessors and the choir of virgins.
In short, we long to be united in
happiness with all the saints. But our dispositions change. The Church of all
the first followers of Christ awaits us, but we do nothing about it. The saints
want us to be with them, and we are indifferent. The souls of the just await
us, and we ignore them. Come, brothers, let us at length spur ourselves on.
St Bernard of
Clairvaux, Office of Readings, Solemnity
of All Saints
Reflection
– Happy feast of All Saints, everyone. The world
today in Combermere is garbed in festal white, as it seems to have snowed much
of the night. It is, seriously, quite a lot of snow out there, although since
the temperature is already above freezing, it will probably all melt by noon.
Which is too bad, as it will make for a mucky, miry kind of day.
Anyhow. All Saints… I love this reading
from St. Bernard which we read every year as part of the office. It is such a
clear teaching – the saints don’t need our honor, but we certainly need to
honor the saints. We celebrate All Saints Day to lift our minds and hearts out
of the worldly muck and mire into this higher realm.
We celebrate the saints so as to stir up
in ourselves the desire to become saints. Almost 30 years ago, when I first
came to Madonna House at age 19, one of the things that impressed me about the
community was that people talked openly about holiness as the actual goal of
human life, about the fact that we are all called to become saints, and that in
fact, as Leon Bloy wrote, the only real tragedy in life is to not become a
saint.
I don’t know about you, but that had not
formed part of my education and general cultural formation. And it left a deep
impression on me (nothing like getting your mind blown when you’re 19 years
old). We all know it, but somehow we all need to keep being reminded of it: the
goal of life is not to be wealthy; it is not to be successful in a career; it
is not to be famous, beautiful, brilliant; it is not even to have a happy
family and be surrounded always by people who love you.
The goal of life is one thing and one
thing only and that is the life of heaven. And the life of heaven is the life
of the saints. And so this solemnity rolls around each year to help us refocus
our attention, to stir up our desire, to get our eyes pointed in the direction
we are supposed to be travelling towards.
And while it is, like every religious
feast, meant to be principally a day of joy and fun (we’re having a pizza
supper, which is a great treat in MH, and an all saints party where people can
dress up like their favorite saint), it is indeed meant to raise that question,
so disquieting to us: am I heading towards my proper goal? Is my life ordered
in such a way that I am moving towards sanctity? Where are my energies going,
where my principal focus? Love of God and love of neighbour? Or… something else? As St. Bernard says, we certainly are prone to getting awfully distracted and indifferent about the whole business.
As we see the saints in all their endless
variety—teachers, preachers, and servants, nuns in their cloisters and lay
people out in the world, martyrs dying in times of persecution and confessors
dying after long years of ceaseless toil and labor for God—we do see that the
path to sanctity is broad and varied enough for any one of us to find a way on
it. And at the same time, it is a narrow path indeed, as Our Lord told us—to receive
love and love in return, to receive mercy and be merciful, to care for nothing but
this and to put our whole hearts and souls into fashioning our lives into love
affairs with God, love poured out for neighbour.
Happy feast of All Saints. May we
celebrate them with great joy and gratitude today, and delight in their human
variety and charming individuality. And may we join them, simply, so that the
party can carry on long into the night, and the day, into the night of this
world and the eternal Day of the world dawning on us, alleluia.
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