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A Terrible All Saints Day
(by Fr.Ron Barnes, a sinner, struggling yet)
Every year, I look forward to celebrating the Festival of All Saints’ Day. What a joyous occasion it should be --- a solemn Eucharist, with glorious music, inspiring lections, and awareness of the reality of the Communion of Saints. Of course, I had gone with many others to the Nov 1st evening Celebration of All Saints’ Day at Christ Church Cathedral --- and it was nice --- but then one expects the Cathedral to be nice. And in that mood, I was looking forward to the Sunday’s renewal of that celebration --- to a wonderful parish family celebration of the Communion of Saints. I joined my wife at her parish church --- and left with a heavy heart.
True, I didn’t expect Gabriel Foure’s Requiem Mass. Nor was I surprised at the BCP Eucharist chopped and intermingled with bits of Morning Prayer, and heaven knows what else. In Anglican churches today, one needs to understand that these things go on. It was the Sermon that finally did me in.
Was there a wonderful expounding of the glory of the Saints? No, rather we were told that the word “Saints” was just another synonym for the people of the Church, the congregation. The Saints, we were told, were not Christians who had run the race, finished their toil, grown into Christ, the Holy Ones of God, the Arrived of Heaven --- instead, the Saints were just us, what I would normally have called “ us sinners”, the people of the pews. Now, to give credit where credit is due, St.Paul definitely calls the people of the Church “the Saints”, but Scripture does not limit the word “Saints” to those here and now. We have only to look at Revelation to see the “…a Company which no man can number, clothed in white robes made clean in the Blood of the Lamb...”. Are not these “the Saints”, as distinct from
us “the Sinners”?
Whatever happened to the “journey”, the life of “Growth in Grace” that we are supposed to be living? Do we not begin our Christian Growth at Baptism, when we are born into Christ, intimately joined to Him, as a member of His Body? Are we not supposed to be Growing in Christ, fed by the Sacraments for the “pilgrimage through this foreign land”, enlivened by the Spirit, supported by one another, “Growing in Grace” each day, as we “become more and more like Him”? Are we not “running the race” with discipline and training, so that we might win the “Crown of Glory”? Are we not called to our Destiny, which is to become perfected in Christ, little by little to be “changed into His Likeness”, until finally we are “One with Him” in Heaven? Is this not what it means to become a
Saint? Is that not our Destiny, the Destiny of all who are called in Christ? Is it not our Destiny to become Saints? To become what Christ has called us to be? “We feebly struggle, they in Glory shine”. And to think that the perfectly wonderful word “Saint” was just a synonym for “a sinner sitting in a pew”.
Finally, the sermon told us that the word “Saints” was always plural in Scripture, never singular. It was a collective term, not a personal identity. No one person, we were told, is to be called “a Saint”, according to this view of Scripture. I wanted to dash out and cross out the “St.” in front of the name of that parish church on the sign board! Imagine that we have been in error for 2000 years --- there is no St.Peter, St.Paul or St.Mary --- just Peter, Paul, and Mary --- the singers had been right all along!
I am tired of archeological religion --- of a view of Scripture that allows no growth, no advancement, no moving ahead of theology --- no improvement in liturgy or growth in the Spirit. All Saints’ Day to me is the practical expression of Easter Day --- if you are Risen with Christ, then let’s celebrate the Destiny to which God has called us. Let’s celebrate those millions and millions of our sisters and brothers who have arrived at Heaven before us, and who now pray for us, and cheer us on as we “fight the good fight”, as they join with us in Praising and Adoring God our Saviour. Whatever happened to the Church Militant, the Church Expectant, and the Church Triumphant? I now live, as a repentant sinner, struggling to Grow each day in the Grace of Christ --- I expect to complete my life of Sanctification in Paradise, and to join with the Saints in
Heaven when God’s Call to Perfection is finally complete in me. And not only me, but you too. And all who are called to “struggle after God” in every place and from every nation. “…through gates of pearl streams in the countless host, singing to Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Alleluia… ”
All Saints’ Day, I believe, is a time to celebrate those who “have gone before”, to be cheered on by our “Heroes in the Faith”, to look ahead to the fulfillment of the Destiny to which we have each been called in Christ. It is time to say, with the Preface to the Book of Common Prayer, that we look forward to “becoming what we already are, the Holy People of God”. If you believe in the Resurrection of Easter, then join with me in celebrating the Triumph of All Saints’ Day --- every year, until we are joined to the “Saints in Glory”. Amen
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