For over 1200 years, All Saints has been one of the greater festivals on the calendar of Western Christianity. And even before the designation of November 1 as All Saints Day, there was a long history of honoring the saints. Since the days of Christ and the Apostles, there has been a sense of communion and community among believers. Christians have shared with one another, interceded for one another, given thanks for one another, and honored the witness and examples of those who have gone before.
The Beatitudes from Matthew 5 remind us of people who would be called “blessed.” We also think of the white-robed multitude praising God in Revelation 7. We have the sense of being surrounded by a great "cloud of witnesses" (Hebrews 12:1), and we know that we should "contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" (Jude vs. 3).
Christians continue to struggle and witness for the Faith. The history of the Church through the generations and the biography of every faithful Christian tell the story of contending for the faith of the saints. By the grace of God, we receive the content of the Faith from the saints who have gone before us, and we seek to be the saints who deliver the same Faith to those who come after us.
Of course, we acknowledge our limitations. The saints of the past have not been perfect, and we are never perfect saints in this world either. Even as we hold fast to the Scriptures, the Creeds, and the Commandments, we may make mistakes in applying them. In this world, we remain both sinners and saints, but Scripture reminds us to trust in the grace of Jesus Christ who can make us saints now and in the future. May we all keep growing in grace, participate in the mystical body of Christ’s Church, and finally come to the unspeakable joys of heaven!
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