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     A wise confessor once told me that he gets interesting reactions from people when he sends them forth saying: "Go in peace.  You are now a saint!"  It is difficult for any of us to imagine ourselves as being saints. Today's traditional feast of ALL Saints doesn't seem to include US.  It's those folks the church has recognized by canonizing them, right?  OK, maybe we might have some private saints or people we have known that we considered to be especially good and holy.  But it's always somebody ELSE who is a saint.  Every time we say the Nicene or Apostles' Creeds, we profess our belief in the Communion of Saints, but do we really consider ourselves as members of that group?  As the First Letter of John says, "Yet so we are!"

     In the Letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul (or a disciple of his) we read: "So then, you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God...." [Eph. 2:19]    In today's gospel passage from the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel According to Matthew, Jesus points to those who are "blessed."  Holiness is not something reserved for the beatified or canonized.  And it should be remembered that some of those folks got where they are only by conversion from very sinful ways [e.g. St. Augustine!].

     In celebrating the feast of All Saints, we can be surely grateful for the models of holiness we have in our lives, whether recognized or not.  But we need to remember the "universal call to holiness" emphasized by the Second Vatican Council, which begins at our baptism and remains our daily struggle.  The Communion of Saints is cheering us on!  AMEN