All Saints (Nov. 1st) and All Souls (Nov. 2nd) Days

After a good number weeks of a large number of saints and/or topics to chose to write about, this week, this week, the selection is smaller:

Oct. 28th, Sts. Simon and Jude, Apostles

Nov. 1st, All Saints

Nov. 2nd, All Souls


Of these, I’m choosing to write about the celebrations of All Saints (Nov 1st) and All Souls (Nov 2nd).


What makes a Saint?  


In the Christian sense, a Saint is a member of the Church, hence baptized and in good standing before both God and the Christian Community (the Church).


To non-Catholics this definition would naturally seem rather “parrochial” – What about Gandhi?  What about Martin Luther King, Jr?  What about Elie Weisal?  What about the nice Muslim grandma on our block who, ever dressed in her hijab, would always bring us a lovely plate of baklavas at the end of her family’s celebration of Ramadan?


Pretty much every religious tradition faces similar issues.  As we learn to try to live together – and between nuclear weapons, and our growing appreciation that we have common responsibility to keep our planet habitable for all of us and future generations, both the Parliament of the World’s Religions, and documents like the joint Declaration “On Human Fraternity For World Peace and Living Together” signed by Pope Francis I and Grand Imam Al-Azhar Ahmad Al-Tayyeb in 2019 (on the Pope's visit United Arab Emirates) become increasingly important.


Intrinsically, most of us do not wish ill onto people who we see as being fundamentally good, and as people we believe were created in the image of God (Gen 1:27), if we feel this way, it’s hard to imagine that our Creator would see them differently.


That said, the fundamental point of St. Augustine in his famous argument with Pelagius over the question of whether or not we can “earn” our way into heaven was that Heaven is “God’s House,” and it’s not up to us to presume entry into said house “without invitation.”


However, then it’s hard to imagine God refusing entry to anyone of good will: In fact the Categories of Purgatory [CCC] (for those not yet completely reconciled with God and with each other) and Hell [CCC] (for those who definitively _don’t_ want to be reconciled with God and with others) exist _out of God’s mercy_ for the people who belong there.


But we are human, and can only work within the categories that we understand.  


So, ever with respect, let’s put aside now the non-Catholics who may be reading this article and focus on the Catholics among us.


All Saints Day (Nov. 1) exists to honor the saints who have been and we have known who will never be on the Church’s calendar.


The Saints on the Church’s calendar are there not simply because they were Saints – in Communion with God and with the Community – but because some aspect(s) of their lives were deemed to be particularly exemplary.   


Our grandmas may have been saints, but pretty much everyone had a grandma who was saintly.  And we can’t have the Church’s Calendar full of truly everybody’s grandmothers.  So we celebrate them, at least the truly Saintly ones, on All Saints’ Day.


THIS THEN brings up the commemoration that we hold the day afterwards, All Souls Day.


All Souls Day (Nov. 2nd) is the day that we pray especially for those who we have known (and those across the whole Church and its history) who while not deserving of Hell, weren’t really Saints in their lives either: “You know, Grandma, love her as I do, was still… kinda a racist … anti-Semitic, drank too much, really didn’t like one of her sons-in-law, etc.”   One can’t despise or disrespect other people, or otherwise have some clear issues in one’s life,  and be a Saint.

 

So we pray for these people so that they overcome whatever still tarnished them here on earth, so that “in the fullness of time” they can come to enter into Heavenly Glory with the other true Saints – fully reconciled with God and with each other.


So while during the year, we’re invited to reflect on specific Saints, people who the Church has lifted up as being particularly exemplary in some way(s), in these days – on both All Saints (Nov 1st) and All Souls (Nov 2) we reflect on pretty much everyone, on those who generally gave us good example in our lives, and on those, who we still dearly love, but know very well, still had some challenges to overcome.


Happy All Saints and All Souls Days!

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