The Feast of All Saints

HONORING THE DEAD IN THE LITURGICAL CALENDAR OF THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH

A depiction of all souls
Calling to mind the saints arouses in us above all else a longing to enjoy their company.
St. Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153); feast day, August 20^th

THE SOLEMNITY OF ALL SAINTS: HALLOWMAS (November 1^st)

St. John's vision of the reward of the saints in Heaven: After that I saw that there was a huge number, impossible for anyone to count, of people from every nation, race, tribe and language; they were standing in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palms in their hands. They shouted in a loud voice, "Salvation to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" And all the angels who were standing in a circle round the throne, surrounding the elders and the four living creatures, prostrated themselves before the throne, and touched the ground with their foreheads, worshipping God with these words: "Amen. Praise and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and strength to our God for ever and ever. Amen." One of the elders then spoke and asked me, "Who are these people, dressed in white robes, and where have they come from?" I answered him, "You can tell me, sir." Then he said, "These are the people who have been through the great trial; they have washed their robes white again in the blood of the Lamb. That is why they are standing in front of God's throne and serve him day and night in his sanctuary; and the One who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them."
Revelation 7:9-15

Those who are "saints" (etym. Latin sanctus, meaning "holy, sacred"), in the broad use of the definition, refers to Christians who, as "holy people," are alive now or were in the past and whose lives were transformed by Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:2). The definition of "saints" includes the Old Testament faithful who waited for the coming of the Messiah and received His message of salvation from the grave (1 Peter 3:19-20; 4:6; Matthew 27:52-53). The souls honored on the Solemnity of All Saints are those who have died, stood before God's Throne of Judgment, and have been deemed worthy to enter into the Beatific Vision in the heavenly Kingdom. The saints in Heaven are souls who come from every nation, language, and ethnic group. And they come from every generation of the ages of humankind. There is only one thing the saints all have in common: during their lives on earth, after they embraced Christ as Savior and Lord, they all distinguished themselves through acts of holiness, loving God and extending His love to the men, women, and children with whom they shared their life's journey with each saint exercising faithful obedience to the will of God for their lives.

The Church recognizes these "holy ones" who lived in the presence of God through her ordinary universal teaching authority or by canonization, a solemn definition of sainthood in which the Church officially recognizes that particular person's sanctity and implies that the soul of that person is now in heavenly glory. With the Church's official recognition, the New Covenant people are encouraged to emulate the lives of the saints (CCC# 2030). A Christian may petition a saint to mediate for that person to God on behalf of the petitioner as a member of the earth-bound Church (CCC# 956; 2683). Those holy souls are members of the Church Glorious who now live in the presence of God.

In St. John's vision of Heaven in the Book of Revelation, he was privileged to witness the liturgical worship of the saints as they surrounded the throne of God in the heavenly Sanctuary. Some of the identities of the holy ones are known to us, but the names of the vast majority of those souls are not known to us, who are still journeying to our rendezvous with eternal judgment. Although some of our older brothers and sisters in faith are unknown to us, we are known to them. They pray for us, urging us on to "finish the race" and to join the eternal family: With so many witnesses in a great cloud all around us, we too, then, should throw off everything that weighs us down and the sin that clings so closely, and with perseverance keep running in the race which lies ahead of us (Hebrews 12:1). We commemorate the saints known to us on their feast days when we are encouraged to remember their acts of faith and perseverance that serve as an example for us.

The Church began to set aside a particular day in the liturgical calendar to honor all the saints in the 7^th century AD. When the ancient pagan structure, known as the Roman Pantheon, was converted into a Christian church on May 13^th, c. AD 608, Pope Boniface IV dedicated the newly consecrated church to the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints. The remembrance of the Christian saints remained a local spring feast until AD 731. Pope Gregory III consecrated a new chapel in the Vatican Basilica in honor of "All Saints" and moved the date of the celebration to begin at sundown on November 1^st (which we would now reckon as sundown on October 31^st). In his time, the Church measured the days from sundown to sundown, which was also the ancient Jewish custom. However, in the 8^th century AD, the observation of the feast of All Saints was still only a local feast of the Church in Rome.

Sometime between AD 837-844, Pope Gregory IV extended the feast of All Saints to the universal Church, keeping the date of the observance as November 1^st. At that time, the Feast of All Saints became a Holy Day of Obligation. Officially it was set aside as a Solemnity when the Church called the faithful to honor all the saints, including those whose names are not known but who continue from their heavenly vantage point to pray for us (CCC# 1169; 1173; 2043; 2180). The Eastern Rite Churches celebrate the Feast of All Saints on the Sunday after Pentecost.

It is unknown why the Latin Rite chose this particular day. It coincided with the time of year that pagan peoples in Europe held their harvest festivals and celebrations that remembered their pagan dead, like the Celtic celebration of Oiche Shamhna ("end-of-summer night"; pronounced ee-hah how-nay), in later years known simply as Samhain. Samhain was an after-harvest festival celebrated with bonfires. It was at this time, as the Celtic peoples believed, their dead revisited the mortal world. The Church vigorously discouraged the Samhain celebration in the Celtic communities that had embraced Christianity, but most Celtic peoples found it difficult to repudiate their ancestral festival. The Church's celebrations of the feasts of All Saints and All Souls became the remedy to wean the people from pagan to Christian practices and celebrations in honor of the dead. The celebration of this Mass for English speaking Christians was called the "All Hallowmas" (Etmy. Angelo Saxon, halgian, "hallow; from halig, "holy"), meaning the "Mass of the Holy Ones," and the vigil was the Hallow's Eve Mass, from which we get our word "Halloween."

For whatever reason the Church chose the date, the season associated with the fall harvest is the perfect time to remember the dead. The crop is gathered and placed in storehouses during the harvest season while the useless vines, branches, etc., are burned in bonfires. It is a meaningful symbol for the great harvest of souls into God's heavenly storehouse where the wheat (the righteous) will be separated from the chaff (the wicked), as St. John the Baptist warned the people in Matthew 3:12, using the symbolism of the harvest: His [God's] winnowing-fan is in his hand; he will clear his threshing-floor and gather his wheat into his barn; but the chaff he will burn in a fire that will never go out (also see Luke 3:17); and as Jesus illustrated in His parable of the wheat and the weeds in Matthew 13:24-30, the imagery of which He later explained at the Apostles' request in Matthew 13:36-43. Jesus finished His explanation of the parable with the words: The Son of man will send his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of falling and all who do evil, and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth. Then the upright will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Anyone who has ears should listen!

The celebration of the Solemnity of All Saints is, above all, a family celebration. We think of our departed brothers and sisters who wait at the heavenly banquet table of our Divine Father. They will not start the banquet without us, and they are waiting for their younger brothers and sisters in Christ to join them at the banquet table of the Communion of Saints. We are part of this communion when we participate in the Eucharistic celebration of the Catholic Mass and come to the altar's table, which symbolizes the table of the Last Supper, the sacrificial altar, and the empty tomb. At that moment, Heaven and earth are joined in liturgical worship.

St. John witnessed the banquet of God's united family in the Book of Revelation. What St. John saw was the final banquet that will never end: Then a voice came from the throne; it said, 'Praise our God, you servants of his and those who fear him, small and great alike.' And I heard what seemed to be the voices of a huge crowd, like the sound of the ocean or the great roar of thunder, answering, 'Alleluia! The reign of the Lord our God Almighty has begun; let us be glad and joyful and give glory to God, because this is the time for the marriage of the Lamb. His bride is ready, and she has been able to dress herself in dazzling white linen, because her linen is made of the good deeds of the saints.' The angel said, Write this, "Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb,"' and he added, These words of God are true' (Revelation 19:5-9). Our earthly communion table is a foretaste of the heavenly banquet that awaits us if we persevere in faithful obedience (see CCC# 946-62; 1331).

A message from Pope Francis
THE COMMEMORATION OF ALL THE FAITHFUL DEPARTED:
ALL SOULS (November 2^nd)

St. John Chrysostom on praying for the dead: Let us help and commemorate them. If Job's sons were purified by their father's sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them.
St. John Chrysostom (d. 407AD), Homilies on 1 Corinthians, #41.5

On November 2^nd, the day after the Solemnity of All Saints, the Church remembers and prays for the salvation of all the dead. The remembrance of the dead begins with this commemoration and continues throughout November and into Advent. The time of year is appropriate for this remembrance since daylight is growing shorter and shorter. And the growing darkness of the days should remind us that the "End of Days" will be upon us at an unknown time without any warning. As Jesus warned His disciples: If anyone says to you then, "Look, here is the Christ," or "Over here," do not believe it; for false Christs and false prophets will arise and provide great signs and portents, enough to deceive even the elect, if that were possible. Look! I have given you warning ... because the coming of the Son of man will be like lightning striking in the east and flashing far into the west. [..].But as far as the day and hour, nobody knows it, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, no one but the Father alone. [...].So stay awake because you do not know the day when your master is coming (Matthew 24:23-25, 27, 36).

The Kingdom of Jesus Christ divides into three parts: The Church Glorious, the Church Militant, and the Church Suffering (CCC# 954):

The Church Glorious is composed of those souls who live in the presence of God in the heavenly Sanctuary.
The Church Militant (also called the "Pilgrim Church)" is composed of those of us who continue the struggle against the powers of Satan (Revelation 12:17) as we journey through this world on our way to our true home in the Promised Land of Heaven.
The Church Suffering is composed of those souls who have been judged worthy of salvation but must endure purification before entering into the Beatific Vision.

On November 2^nd, we are encouraged to remember all the faithful departed souls, including the souls of the Church suffering in Purgatory. We do not know which souls in their individual judgments (CCC# 1021-22) were judged to be pure and worthy of Heaven (# 769, 989, 1038). Nor do we know of those who God deemed worthy of salvation but who are being purified in Purgatory of the stain of venial sins that went unconfessed, or mortal sins forgiven in the Sacrament of Reconciliation but for which accountability is still necessary (CCC#1030-32; 1470; 1472; 1 Corinthians 3:12-15; 1 John 5:16-17). Finally, we do not know the identity of those souls who have denied the gift of eternal life and have consigned themselves to eternal separation from God (CCC#1033-37; 1861). Therefore, since we do not know and are not qualified to judge the condition of souls, we should persevere in prayer for all the dead (Job 1:5; 2 Maccabees 12:43-46; CCC 1032).

However, remembering the dead should not be a gloomy remembrance. Who else can afford to laugh at death but the Christian whose Savior has defeated the power of sin and death (Romans 6:9-13; 8:38; 1 Corinthians 15:54; Hebrews 2:14-15)? The North American holiday, Halloween, essentially mocks death and those aspects of death that frighten us. It has its origins in the Celtic celebration of the dead after the fall harvest that later developed into the English Christian custom, introduced in the Middle Ages, of people going from house to house begging for "soul cakes" during the remembrance of All Souls' Day. The celebration of All Souls' Day and the practice of "begging" for soul cakes persisted in Britain until the Protestant Reformation in the 16^th century put an end to its customs. Still, it continued in northern England until as late as the 1930s. Our Halloween custom of giving and receiving treats probably stems from this ancient English tradition on All Souls' Day. As the people went from door to door, the celebrants sang: "Soul, soul, soul cake! Please, good people, a soul cake! One for Peter, two for Paul, three for God who made us all" (The Companion to the Calendar, page 163).

Both the feast days of All Saints and All Souls come at the close of the liturgical year. They should remind us that we are in the Last Days and that the next Age will come with the Second Advent of Christ and the Resurrection of the dead (CCC# 366; 999-1001; 1038), followed by the Final Judgment (CCC# 1038-41). Thus, the liturgical readings have the unifying theme of the End of Days and Divine Judgment during this season. All of these "signs" should serve to remind us that this world is passing away to make way, in the Second Advent of Jesus Christ, for the new Heaven and the new earth when Christ rules over His united Kingdom for eternity (Romans 8:19-23; 2 Peter 3:9-10; Revelation 21:1, 5; CCC# 1042-1050). The observance of these feast days should also remind us that all Christians, both the living and the dead, are one Body in Christ (CCC# 787-96; 805). Since all Christians, living and dead, are united as one covenant family in the Body of Christ, our good works on earth can be a blessing to those who have died in Christ. In addition, their love and prayers can be a blessing for those of us making our journey through the wilderness of this life on our way to the Promised Land of Heaven (Hebrews 12:1; CCC# 956; 1475; 2006-11).

Endnote: In the United States and other countries, the bishops have received permission from the Vatican to abrogate (temporarily waive) the requirement for Catholics to attend Mass on some Holy Days of Obligation when those days fall on either a Saturday or Monday. In that case, the obligation to attend Mass is abrogated. Because of this, some Catholics have become confused about whether certain Holy Days are, in fact, Holy Days of Obligation; All Saints (November 1^st) is one such Holy Day. For instance, All Saints Day fell on Saturday in 2014 and Monday in 2010; in both cases, Catholics in the United States had no requirement to attend Mass on November 1^st. However, Catholics elsewhere may still be under the obligation; check with your priest or diocese.

Resources:

Catechism of the Catholic Church, second edition, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997.
Companion to the Calendar, Mary Ellen Hynes, Archdiocese of Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications, 1993.
Lives of the Saints, Fr. Hugo Hoever, S.O.Cist., PhD., Catholic Book Publishing Company, New Your, 1955; revised 1993.
Mapping Time: The Calendar and its History, E. G. Richards, Oxford University Press, 1998, reprinted 2005.
New Jerusalem Study Bible, Doubleday, 1985.
New Webster's International Dictionary, vol. I, Grolier, 1969.