Solemnity of All Saints

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Read the story of the Solemnity of All Saints

Already at the end of the 2nd century we find a real veneration of the saints.

At the beginning, the holy martyrs, to whom the apostles were soon assimilated, official witnesses of the faith. After the great persecutions of the Roman Empire, men and women who lived the Christian life in a beautiful, heroic way gradually became objects of veneration: the first non-martyr saint was Saint Martin of Tours.

Towards the end of the year 1000, faced with the uncontrolled development of the veneration of saints and of the "trade" around relics, a process for canonization was developed, up to and including the proof of miracles. The Solemnity of All Saints began in the East, in the 4th century, and then spread, albeit with different dates.

In Rome, May 13; in England and Ireland, starting from the 8th century, on November 1st. The latter date also established itself in Rome starting from the 9th century. The solemnity falls towards the end of the liturgical year, when the Church keeps its gaze fixed on the final deadline, and is already thinking of those who have crossed the gates of Heaven.

Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up the mountain: he sat down and his disciples approached him. Yes
he began to speak and taught them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn,
because they will be comforted.
Blessed are the myths,
because they will inherit the land.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice,
because they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful,
because they will find mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
because they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers,
because they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those persecuted for justice,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when they insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and rejoice, for your reward is great in heaven."(Mt 5,1-12a)

The Saints

The male and female saints - authentic friends of God - to whom the Church today invites us to turn our gaze are men and women who allowed themselves to be fascinated by this proposal, who agreed to follow the path of the Beatitudes.

Not because they are better or braver than us: simply because they "knew" that we are all children of God and they experienced it. They felt like "forgiven sinners": these are the Saints. They learned to know themselves, to direct their strength towards God, towards themselves and towards others, knowing how to trust, in their fragility, in divine Mercy.

Today they encourage us to aim high, to look far ahead, to the goal and the prize that awaits us; they encourage us not to resign ourselves to the hardships of everyday life because life not only has an end, but above all it has an end, eternal communion with God.

With this feast the Church indicates to us and supports us the saints, friends of God and models of blessed life, who intercede for us, encouraging us to live this last mile of the liturgical year with greater intensity, a sign-symbol of the journey of life .

The eight ways

It is a question of following the path, or rather, the eight paths, traced by Jesus, and indicated in the Gospel: the beatitudes.“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven…”:the strong point is not so much on the "blessed", but on the "why". You are not "blessed" because you are "poor", but you are blessed because, as poor, you are in the privileged condition of receiving the kingdom of heaven.

And so it will be for the other seven conditions: "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be consoled"; “blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth”; “blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied”; "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy";

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God”; “blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be children of God”; “blessed are those persecuted for justice, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”; “blessed when they insult you…rejoice, for great is your reward in heaven”.

It is that "why" that explains everything, that reveals where the myths will find trust; where peace workers will find joy ... "Blessed", therefore, not intended as a simple emotion, as long as it is important, but rather a wish to get back on your feet, not to let yourself be discouraged, not to give up, to move forward... because God is with you . Into you.

The point, therefore, is to see God, to be on his side, to be made the object of his attention. Contemplating God not in heaven, but already today.

Here are the eight paths that we are invited to follow so that we too can participate in the joy indicated by the Apocalypse, and which we can all follow: "Beloved, you see what love the Father has given us to be called children of God, and we really are... even now we are children of God, but what we will be has not yet been revealed...” (1Jn, second reading).

We, says the refrain of the psalm in response to the first reading, we are "the generation that seeks the face of the Lord”. And not because we are good or not, but because God himself wanted it

And I?

In these “8 Words” which are the Beatitudes, Jesus addresses an invitation to me: “Are you interested in the kingdom of heaven? Are you interested in cultivating a high standard of life?”.

Of course, the world is going another way: it invites us to feel happy through a comfortable and economically solid life, rather than "poor in spirit". He invites us to have fun in every way and by every means, other than "blessed are those who mourn".

He invites us to make ourselves heard, to prevail over others, rather than being meek. He invites us to satiate ourselves with everything, without ifs or buts, other than satiating ourselves with peace and justice. He invites us to think about ourselves, rather than being merciful.

He invites us to go where your heart takes you, satisfying every passion, rather than being pure of heart. He invites us to defend our fences, rather than become peacemakers. He invites us to prevail and persecute rather than to be insulted!

The Beatitudes may truly seem absurd, yet they are the 8 Ways to a beautiful, blessed, happy life... a successful life. Or, if we want, a holy life.

And it's not about words, it's not about ideas... because if we observe carefully, the Beatitudes present us with a photograph of Jesus himself: poor, meek, compliant, merciful... animated solely by will."to take care of the Father's affairs” (see Luke 2:41-50).

As I mentioned, the strong point is not in the "blessed", but in the "why": bliss, happiness comes from having a meaning in one's life, from possessing a direction, a reason for living and, also, for whose life is worth losing: “You didn't know that I must be about my Father's business?”, “…for theirs is the kingdom of heaven".

Joy, therefore, bliss does not derive from external conditions, whether well-being, pleasure, success... all fragile and ephemeral experiences (see Mt 7,24-28: house on sand and rock), but from happiness promise from God to those who take certain behaviors into their hearts and manifest them in daily life

Saints next door

Today's solemnity therefore shows us that a "blessed", "beautiful", "successful", "holy" life... is possible.

It was possible yesterday, and it is possible today. For everyone. With us. We can become those "saints next door" that Pope Francis told us about.

That is, men and women reconciled with ourselves, with others and with God, capable of making the light of God's merciful love shine within the flow of daily life. In the family, at work, during free time... knowing how to live "Jesus", knowing how to trust in his "8 ways".

With Baptism we are all already saints, but we don't know it! Too often we do not even realize this possibility that Baptism has placed in our hands: yet it is there. Because that's what Jesus wanted!

An anecdote

During a visit to a church in Turin, a child from the school asked the teacher for explanations regarding some bright and beautiful stained glass windows.

“They represent saints – she replies – men and women who lived their friendship with Jesus in a special and strong way”.

A few days later, on the feast of the Saints, the priest asks the boys if they can explain to him who the people who the Church reveres as "saints" were and what they had done.

The boy who had asked for explanations about the windows raised his hand and in a confident voice, gave the answer: "They are the ones who let the Light pass".

Some also call the "Autumn Easter" the important solemnity that we celebrate today as active members of a Church that once again does not look at itself, but looks and aspires to heaven.

Holiness, in fact, is a path that we are all called to follow, following the example of these older brothers of ours who are proposed to us as models because they agreed to let themselves be met by Jesus, towards whom they went with trust, bringing their desires. , their weaknesses and even their suffering.

The meaning of solemnity

The liturgical memory dedicates a special day to all those who are united with Christ in glory and who are not only indicated as archetypes, but also invoked as protectors of our actions.

The Saints are the children of God who have reached the goal of salvation and who live in eternity that condition of bliss well expressed by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount narrated in the Gospel (Mt 5, 1-12).

The Saints are also those who accompany us on the path of imitation of Jesus, which leads us to be the cornerstone in the construction of the Kingdom of God.

The communion of saints

In our Profession of Faith we affirm that we believe in the Communion of Saints: with this expression we mean both the life and eternal contemplation of God which is the reason and purpose of this communion, but we also mean communion with holy "things".

If, in fact, earthly goods, because they are limited, divide men in space and time, the graces and gifts that God gives are infinite and everyone can participate in them. Especially the gift of the Eucharist allows us to already experience the anticipation of that liturgy that the Lord celebrates in the celestial sanctuary with all the Saints.

The greatness of redemption is measured by the fruit, that is, by those who have been redeemed and have matured in holiness. In their faces the Church contemplates her vocation, the condition of transfigured humanity on the path towards the Kingdom.

Origins and history of the festival

This celebration of hope, which reminds us of the goal of our life, has ancient roots: in the 4th century the commemoration of the martyrs, common to different Churches, began to be celebrated.

The first traces of this celebration were found in Antioch on the Sunday following Pentecost and St. John Chrysostom already tells us about it.

Between the 8th and 9th centuries the festival also began to spread in Europe, and in Rome specifically in the 9th: here it was Pope Gregory III (731-741) who chose November 1st as the date to make it coincide with the consecration of a chapel in St. Peter's dedicated to the relics "of the Holy Apostles and of all the Holy Martyrs and Confessors, and of all the righteous made perfect who rest in peace throughout the world".

At the time of Charlemagne, this feast was already widely known as the occasion in which the Church, still wandering and suffering on Earth, looked to heaven, where its most glorious brothers reside.

source © Vatican News – Dicasterium pro Communicatione