IN HONOREM OMNIUM SANTORUM

A sermon preached for the
PATRONAL FESTIVAL
of the
CHURCH OF ALL SAINTS,
New Eltham, London, SE
on Sunday, November 4th, 2012   

‘And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples,

and God himself will be with them.’ (Rev.21:3)

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INTRODUCTION

What is a saint?  Ask the man in the street and the cynic might reply, ‘someone who’s holier than thou.’  Or, if he knows better, ‘a holy person’.  And, technically of course, that’s right for the word comes from the Latin, ‘sanctus’ which means ‘holy’. 

The problem is that holiness has come to be regarded as something achievable by only a select few: people who live extraordinarily virtuous lives, leading many of us to have said, at some point in our lives, ‘well, I’m no saint’. Or, maybe, ‘of course, she’s no saint!’  But in the New Testament the word ‘saint’ means all Christians – you and me and all who seek to be united with Christ.

Two days ago the Church commemorated all the Holy Souls;  those who, as our first reading said, have gone from us and are at peace; whose hope is of immortality and are waiting to be disciplined a little for a greater good: union with God.  Today as we keep the Solemnity of All Saints we celebrate all who have gone before us and have attained that union.    

Saints, of course are as varied as impetuous Peter and fiery Paul; repentant Magdalene and radical John Baptist; practical Teresa and childlike Thérèse.  Some are awesome and others ordinary; many were brave and others fools.  Amongst them you will find, as someone observed, ‘shy artists, and passionate poets … housewives and kings, taxation experts and lawyers, bakers and brigands.’  Yes, all of us are called to be saints!

WHAT IS A SAINT?

Some years ago I found, in the writings of the great American Cistercian, Thomas Merton, a wonderful reflection on this question of ‘what is a saint?’ and I’d like to quote it at length.  ‘For me’, he said, ‘to be a saint means to be myself.  Therefore the problem of sanctity and salvation is in fact the problem of finding out who I am and of discovering my true self.

Trees and animals have no problem.  God makes them what they are without consulting them, and they are perfectly satisfied.

With us it is different.  God leaves us free to be whatever we like.  We can be ourselves or not, as we please.  We are at liberty to be real, or to be unreal.  We may wear now one mask and now another, and never, if we so desire, appear with our own true face.

We are free beings and (children) of God.  We are called to share with God the work of creating the truth of our identity.  … To work out (that) identity in God…. demands close attention to reality at every moment.  Unless I desire this identity and work to find it with Him and in Him, the work will never be done.’ (Merton – ‘The Shining Wilderness’)

Those of you who know that wonderful children’s book, ‘The Velveteen Rabbit’ may recall how ‘being real’ happens:  ‘Real isn’t how you are made’ …  ;  When a child loves you for a long, long time – not just to play with, but really loves you, then you become real’. … It doesn’t happen all at once, … You become. It takes a long time.  That’s why it doesn’t often happen to people who break easily, or who have sharp edges, or who have to be kept carefully.  Generally, by the time you are real, most of your hair has been loved off and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby.  But these things do not matter at all, except to people who do not understand.’

So holiness is more about being real than, for example, being good.  We can struggle to be good and miss the point, and the point is to let ourselves be loved by God.  The truly holy person doesn’t mind about themselves.  They left all that behind a long time ago.  They mind about letting themselves go into the unfathomable love of God.  That’s what holiness is about.  The utter nakedness of being real before God. 

MY JOURNEY WITH THE SAINTS

Looking back over my life it seems I can never escape the saints.  As a teenager my faith was nurtured at a church dedicated to All Saints and, later, it was fostered in the great Church of All Saints, Margaret Street in the West End, where the beauty of worship was undergirded by priests with tremendous pastoral and preaching skills.  Now, when I am not at this church dedicated to All Saints I am usually at All Saints on Blackheath.  And, between all these places, I have found myself influenced by particular saints: Benedict, Teresa of Ávila and Francis of Assisi and, later on, by Ignatius Loyola. 

Through Benedict I was introduced to the importance of developing a rhythm of prayer; Terese encouraged me through her teaching that the self is like a castle at whose centre the soul is united with God; Francis drew me by his simplicity and humility and desire for union with the love of God, and Ignatius by the depth of his understanding of the soul and the principle that we were created to ‘praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord’.

But today the emphasis is not on that ‘great multitude … (which) no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.’ (Rev. 7:9)   Our focus is on all those through whom we catch a glimpse of what God is like and of what we are called to be. 

I remember Lily whom I knew in Nottingham fifty years ago.  She had worked all her life as a cleaner and lived alone in a small flat as she had no family.  Many years before she had tested her vocation as a Religious Sister but her health wasn’t up to the life.  She didn’t have enough money for holidays but would travel in her imagination to all the places she had read of.  By the time I knew her she was quite deaf and almost blind but each day took a bus across the city to Mass.  She was one of those ‘thin’ people through whom the love of God shone and I thank Him for having known her. 

Who is your ‘Lily’ I wonder, and how have their lives impacted yours?  What saints have you met?  Keep them close; they are your doorways to heaven. 

CONCLUSION

In the Apostles Creed, recited at Baptism, we affirm belief in the holy Catholic Church and the communion of saints.  Yet how frequently we forget that, as the Letter to the Hebrews reminds us, ‘we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses.’  Many years ago I spent time worshipping at the Serbian Orthodox church in Birmingham.  Like many such churches, it was covered throughout by frescoes and icons of the saints, all of whom directed their attention to Christ Pantocrator reigning from the dome.  To enter such a place left the worshipper in no doubt that they had entered heaven.  There one was inspired to ‘lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and … run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.’ (Heb.12:1ff)

Saints of God, come to our aid!  How easy it is to call upon them, for they surround us at all times and in all places.  One of the most beautiful hymns I know affirms that:

These stones that have echoed their praises are holy,
And dear is the ground where their feet have once trod;
Yet here they confessed they were strangers and pilgrims,
And still they were seeking the city of God.

Nine hundred years ago S. Bernard of Clairvaux, realising this, wrote: ‘Plunge into matter. Plunge into God. By means of all created things, without exception, the divine assails us, penetrates us and moulds us. We imagine it as distant and inaccessible, whereas in fact, we live steeped in its burning layers.’

So as we celebrate All the Saints, known and unknown, we are reminded that holiness is everywhere and in all people.  Perhaps our prayer today might be that, just as we encounter Christ beneath the outer form of the Eucharist, bread and wine, so the whole of creation is a means of encountering God.  And, in particular, the lives of human beings, for all are created in the image and likeness of God.  Each day let us make the saints our friends and realise their presence with us as we call upon their prayers.  As S. Patrick wrote in his great hymn:

I arise today
Through the strength of the love of Cherubim,
In obedience of angels,
In the service of archangels,
In hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
In prayers of patriarchs,
In predictions of prophets,
In preaching of apostles,
In faith of confessors,
In innocence of holy virgins,
In deeds of righteous men.
I arise today.