11/1 - All Saints Day

Dear Parish Family,

 A common commemoration of the saints, especially the martyrs, appeared in various areas throughout the Church after the legalization of Christianity in AD 313. The primary reason for establishing a common feast day was the desire to honor the great number of Christians martyred during the persecution of Emperor Diocletian (284-305). In the East, the city of Edessa celebrated this feast on May 13, the Syrians, on the Friday after Easter, and the city of Antioch, on the first Sunday after Pentecost. Both St. Ephraim (d. 373) and St. John Chrysostom (d. 407) attest to this feast day in their preaching. The earliest observance of the holiday was recorded in the early fourth century. But the feast was only fully established in the early seventh century under Pope Boniface IV (pope 608-615), who consecrated Rome’s Pantheon to the Virgin Mary and all the Martyrs on May 13 in AD 609 (www.diffen.com). Pope Gregory IV (pope 828-844), made All Saints’ a holy day in the mid-eighth century and moved it to November 1.

The feast gives us an occasion to thank God for having invited so many of our ancestors to join the company of the saints. May our reflection on the heroic lives of the saints and the imitation of their lifestyle enable us to hear from our Lord the words of grand welcome to eternal bliss: “Well done, good and faithful servant! Enter into the joys of your master” (Mt 25:21). Today is also a day for us to pray to the saints, both the canonized and the un-canonized, asking them to pray on our behalf that we may live our lives in faithfulness like theirs, and so receive the same reward. All baptized Christians who have died and are now with God in glory are considered saints. All Saints Day is a day on which we thank God for giving ordinary men and women a share in His holiness and Heavenly glory as a reward for their Faith. In fact, we celebrate the feast of each canonized saint on a particular day of the year. But there are countless other saints and martyrs, men, women and children united with God in Heavenly glory, whose feasts we do not celebrate. In the African Church, the traditional honor to the ancestors evoked
enthusiasm for this celebration of the Feast of All Saints.  Among those we remember today would be our own parents and grandparents, brothers and sisters who were heroic women and men of Faith. All Saints Day is intended to honor their memory. Hence, today’s feast can be called the feast of the Unknown Saint, in line with the tradition of the “Unknown Soldier”. In addition, the feast is observed to teach us to honor the saints, both by imitating their lives and by seeking their intercession for us before Christ, the only mediator between God and man (I Tm 2:5). Today, the Church reminds us that God’s call for holiness is universal and that all of us are called to live in His love and to make His love real in the lives of those around us. Holiness is related to the word wholesomeness. We show holiness when we live lives of integrity and truth, that is, wholesome and integrated lives in which we are close to others while being close to God. Holiness of life is not an option, but transitioning into Eternal Life on a daily basis.

Fr. Tom Kunnel C.O.