Reflection on All Saints Conclusion

by Fr. Tony Okolo C.S.Sp., V.F.  |  11/13/2025  |  Weekly Reflection

Beloved Parishioners,

As I said last week, today’s Pastor’s Corner will conclude my reflection on All Saints. By institution of the feast of All Saints, the Church wants us to understand that our fundamental call as Christians is a call to holiness and this call is not restricted to the clergy or consecrated persons, rather it is universal.

Lumen Gentium number 40 highlights that “the followers of Christ must hold on to and perfect in their lives that sanctification which they have received from God” and in Matthew 5:48 Jesus admonishes us that we must be holy as our Heavenly Father is holy. In fact, we picked up our appointment letter to a life of holiness on the day we became baptized. It’s a lifelong endeavor but the grace of God is there to assist us. Our generation is not exempted in this call to holiness. We have seen the example of Saint Carlo Acutis who was born in 1991, died in 2006 and was canonized on the 7th of September this year. His example shows us that even in the 21st century, the call to holiness is not outdated.

Second, this feast is an invitation for us not only to celebrate the lives of the saints as though it has no concern to us but as Hebrews 13:7-8 reminds us that as we reflect on the outcome of their lives, we must imitate their faith because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Again Hebrews 12:1-2 urges us thus: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.” This is a call to exemplary mirroring of the lives and examples of the saints we celebrate today especially having a personal relationship with and a personal conviction about Jesus.

Thirdly, this feast celebrated in the Jubilee Year of Hope, invites us to live in hope knowing that our struggle here on earth is temporal and our destination and resting place is in heaven, where Christ has prepared for us. We are not earthbound rather we are “fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:9). “Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” (Philippians 3:20-21). As Church on mission or Church militant, we know that one day we shall unite with the Triumphant Church.

We ought to understand that saints are not just historical figures from the past, but they are our role models and our intercessors who are examples for us. This means that everyone of us can be a saint because the saints we celebrate are people who faced the same struggles we now face during their own time, but they cooperated with the grace of God at work in them. We must understand also that holiness is not perfection but progress in cooperating with God’s grace. Every sinner has a future, and every saint had a past, so we must not be discouraged by making an effort to be holy. Our patron saints are cheering us on and interceding on our behalf, and we must not let them down. In the same vein, being a saint does not imply doing extraordinary things, rather it consists in doing ordinary things in an extraordinary manner. Just like St. Theresa of Lisieux highlights to us when she says, “I will spend my heaven doing good on earth,” let us not ignore the works of mercy.