Homily: November 1, 2022, Solemnity of All Saints

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 “After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue.”

When I was little boy, I always thought my father was a living saint, and that he would definitely go to heaven when he dies. I didn’t know many people then, and he was the holiest man I ever knew at that time. He was very different from other Indian men, or anybody else I knew, even my mother. He was very prayerful, humble, calm, patient and forgiving.

As I grew older, I met more people and got to know many friends and people who are especially kind, loving and with great faith. I confidently believe that these would also enter heaven as holy saints.

I am sure you too would know many people who stand out as exceptionally good and holy people. It is not difficult for us to imagine them in heaven, shining brightly as they do while on earth.

There are two categories of sainthood. The first is canonised saints, saints who are recognised by the church officially, through a rigorous process of assessing their exemplary earthly lives and accepting miracles to their intercession.

The other category is the unknown, uncelebrated saints whose lives are also exemplary but not public. They shine humbly within their families and communities, like my father and the people we know personally. They may not be recognised officially by Church but God surely recognises them and has called them to His heavenly Kingdom.

These are the saints we commemorate today. They do not have an official individual feastday in the church’s calendar but are honored all together in this solemnity of all saints. They are among the multitude who have washed themselves in the blood of the Lamb.

What about ourselves? Are we good enough?

Do you know that God wants us to be saints, to be in heaven with Him, more than we want it for ourselves?

Yes, His will is that we all make it to heaven. His will is that we all reach holiness through His grace and mercy. We can never make it on our own. Jesus has opened the way for us, God gives us the grace to walk the way, and finally God grants us mercy to enter the gates of heaven.

Max Lucado said, “The sinless one took on the face of a sinner so that we sinners could take on the face of a saint.” Yes, without divine help, we would all go straight down.

Fulton Sheen said, “Heaven is a city on a hill, hence we cannot coast into it, we have to climb.” The hill refers to calvary, the climb refers to living the beatitudes, as Jesus taught in today’s gospel.

Fulton Sheen also said, if you get to heaven there will be three miracles: one, you will see many people you did not expect to see there; two, you will NOT see some people you were expecting to see; and the third miracle is…YOU will be there.

By virtue of our baptism, heaven is our birth-right and our inheritance. We just have to claim it.

What about those whose lives and characters are considered wayward and hard to mend? Would they have a chance to enter heaven?

Well, if Saul who persecuted the Christians can become St. Paul who founded numerous Christian churches, and if St. Augustine can be convinced by God to turn his life around, there is no one who cannot be converted by the Lord. It is pride that blocks the heart.

St. John Vianney said, “The saints did not all begin well, but they all ended well.” Let not our beginning, nor our past, determine our eternity.

After all, Pope Francis said, “Saints are not supermen who are born perfect, but rather are ordinary people who followed God with all their heart”. So you and I, ordinary folks, if we follow God with all our heart, we can ‘rejoice and be glad, for (our) reward will be great in heaven’.

Pope Francis also said that “To be saints is not a privilege for a few, but a vocation for everyone.”

The solemnity we celebrate today is the feastday for all unknown saints who have made it and for all of us, future saints who WILL make it.

Fulton Sheen again, said, “It doesn’t take much time to become a saint, only much love.”

So, “love one another as I have loved you” and “blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Happy blessed feastday to us all!

Fr. Nivin Scaria 


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