RSS
Home
Our extended family: the saints
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
(Photo: Daniel Sone)
The Catholic Church is like one big family. Catholics have relatives on Earth, Purgatory, and Heaven all unified in the Mystical Body of Christ. That was the main theme that the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, drove across during his EWTN-broadcasted homily at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on All Saints Day.
All Saints Day, often overshadowed by the celebration of Halloween the evening before, is not just a day to venerate and honor those who have died and entered Heaven. It is an important day which reminds Catholics that they are part of larger whole, and not just in this life but also the next one. This family, called the Communion of Saints, is one of the major precepts of the Catholic faith (see: Nicene Creed).
All Saints Day reflects upon the diversity and unity of God’s plan and the spiritual family He instituted through His Son. The ‘garden’ analogy was used by Pope Benedict XVI to demonstrate the diversity within holiness found in the saints, “from every age and social condition, of every tongue, people and culture. Each is different from the others, with the uniqueness of their own personality and their own spiritual charism.”
Archbishop Sambi relayed the pope’s reflections to the congregation of diversity, but also unity. Archbishop Sambi said that the Communion of Saints is like, “an extended family,” which is organically spiritually unified via Jesus Christ. He also said that knowing of the existence of this family should help quell one’s fears of the unknown and anxiety of loneliness. He said that as Catholics, “we are moving towards the great company in Heaven.”
That unified path, toward Heaven, should give one comfort on the journey. It also provides examples, aspirations, and solutions to those faithful, and not-so-faithful, who have not yet entered that ‘great company’. Father James F. Fetscher, pastor of St. Louis Catholic Church in Pinecrest, FL said that the saints are God’s and the Churches constant reminder that holiness and Heaven are attainable.
The saints are the Church’s way of saying, ‘You can do it. You can do it. You can do it.
Many people are plagued by the seemingly impossible lifelong task of being holy and entering Heaven. Doubt creeps in and can lead to despair and inaction. However, over its long history, the Catholic Church has provided many examples of ordinary and extraordinary people, through their ordinary and extraordinary faith and actions, have accomplished the seemingly impossible. “In their earthly existence, in fact, they were poor in spirit, pained by their sins, myths, starved of and thirsting for justice, merciful, pure of heart, peacemakers, persecuted for righteousness' sake,” Pope Benedict XVI said.
The saintly examples available to both Catholics and other Christians effectually eliminate ignorance of how to attain holiness and Heaven. They attained the Kingdom of Heaven and their lives are, as the Father Fetscher said, a “you can do it.”
A woman praying during All Saints Day Mass at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. (Photo: Daniel Sone)
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
