Homily

Feast of All Saints: Benedict XVI's homily

Pope Benedict XVI

Contents - Nov 2010 - Buy a copy now Homily: Feast of All Saints: Benedict XVI's homily - Pope Benedict XVI Canonisation: St Mary of the Cross MacKillop: let the truth be told - Peter Westmore News: The Church Around the World Homosexuality: Courage and EnCourage Chicago Conference: holiness the key - Marie Mason Gendercide: how abortion targets baby girls - Peter Kavanagh Liturgy: Catholic funerals: Bishop Elliott explains Melbourne's guidelines - Bishop Peter J. Eliott Vocations: Priestly and religious vocations upsurge in the US - Tim Drake Saints: Blessed John Henry Newman: why he is worthy of canonisation - Frank Mobbs Ukrainian Catholics: Ukraine's University of the Catacombs - Andrew Kania Letters: Catholic funerals - George Simpson Letters: Benedict XVI in the UK - Arnold Jago Letters: Future Church - Tom King Letters: Vatican II: infallibility - John Young Letters: Infallibility criteria - James Bogle Letters: Definitive or not? - Fr Brian Harrison OS, STD Letters: Declarations - Frank Mobbs Letters: Abortion - Moya and Leo Morrissey Letters: Elephants in the room - Frank Bellet Books: Damien of Molokai: the Leper Saint, by Robert Louis Stevenson - Michael E. Daniel (reviewer) Books: HIS NAME IS MERCY, by Fr Ken Barker MGL - Archbishop Denis Hart (reviewer) Books: BLESSED JOHN  HENRY NEWMAN: A Richly Illustrated Portrait, by K.D. and D. Fso - Br Barry Coldrey (reviewer) Fighting Fund progress Books: Order books from www.freedompublishing.com.au Reflection: The woman in another place [Luke 4:38-39; Acts 12:12-17) - Babette Francis

With great joy, we celebrate the feast of All Saints. Visiting a nursery garden, one remains taken aback at the variety of plants and flowers, and spontaneously begins to think of the Creator's fantasy that made the earth a marvellous garden.

These same sentiments come to us when we consider the spectacle of hol-iness: the world appears to us as a "garden," where the Spirit of God has sustained with remarkable wonder a multitude of saints, male and female, from every age and social condition, of every tongue, people and culture. Each is different from the others, with the uniqueness of personality and spiritual charism.

All, however, were marked by the "seal" of Jesus, the imprint of his love, witnessed upon the Cross. All now are at joy, in a feast without end as, like Jesus, they reached this goal across toil and trial, each one encountering a share of sacrifice to participate in the glory of the resurrection.

This spiritual measure, to which all the baptised are called, is accom-plished in following the way of the evangelical beatitudes. It is the same path traced by Jesus and which the saints pushed themselves to follow, always aware of their human limits. In their earthly existence, in fact, they were poor in spirit, pained by their sins, starved of and thirsting for justice, merciful, pure of heart, peacemakers, persecuted for righteousness' sake.

On this day let us revive in ourselves an attraction toward Heaven that calls us to carry on in our earthly pilgrimage. Let us lift in our hearts the desire to always unite ourselves to the family of the saints, of which we already have the grace to be a part. In the words of a celebrated song, "When the saints go marching in, oh how I'd want, Lord, to be in their number!"

May this beautiful aspiration burn in all Christians and help them to surpass every difficulty, every fear, every tribulation. Let us place, dear friends, our hand in the maternal one of Mary, Queen of All Saints, and let ourselves be led by her toward our heavenly homeland, in the company of the blessed spirits "of every nation, people and language." And let us unite ourselves in prayer already recalling our dear departed ones whom we commemorate on this feast day.

This is the edited text of Pope Benedict XVI's homily for All Saints Day 2009.

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 23 No 10 (November 2010), p. 2