ALL SAINTS

Today’s feast celebrates all those holy Men and Women who have gone before us who have never been formally canonised.  The feast dates back to the beginning of the seventh century when the Pope consecrated the Pantheon in Rome, which was a pagan temple. There was a legend that the bones of the Martyrs and others buried at the catacombs were re-buried under its floor.

And so the Church celebrates and thanks God for their personal witness to the Gospel.

So what is a Saint? I want to use a piece that the Holy Father used when he was here in September last year as he spoke to the pupils at St Mary’s Collage Twickenham.

 When I invite you to become saints, I am asking you not to be content with second best. I am asking you not to pursue one limited goal and ignore all the others. Having money makes it possible to be generous and to do good in the world, but on its own, it is not enough to make us happy. Being highly skilled in some activity or profession is good, but it will not satisfy us unless we aim for something greater still. It might make us famous, but it will not make us happy. Happiness is something we all want, but one of the great tragedies in this world is that so many people never find it, because they look for it in the wrong places. The key to it is very simple – true happiness is to be found in God. We need to have the courage to place our deepest hopes in God alone, not in money, in a career, in worldly success, or in our relationships with others, but in God. Only he can satisfy the deepest needs of our hearts.

I think that these words can also apply to use no matter how old we are. Our vocation is to become saints to be day by day conformed into the likeness of God To be whole We grow in holiness not only by our own efforts and merits but by being united into the Body of Christ, the Church.