Fr Paul Gooley’s All Saints Day homily for 2023

Something you may not know is that the church has a list of Saints that is called the ‘General Roman Calendar’. It is a list of each day of the year and on what days we celebrate the life of a particular saint.

So, you can look up a particular day, say your birthday, and see which saint is on the same day. You may then want to find out something about this saint and see why it is that they were so special that the church now has a special place for them in its life.

The definition of a saint is that ‘a saint is a holy or canonized person regarded as having a place in heaven’, ‘A very virtuous person’.

And in telling you this definition I draw your attention to the word “person”.

All the names on the General Roman Calendar of the church are of people. People who were just like you and me – flesh and blood type people – who because of the way they, at some stage, decided to live their lives became for others a great example to follow. They were seen to be Christ-like. They were seen to live out the values that are found in the Gospel and even despite hardships and death they remained faithful to their way of life. But they were people just like you and I.

As an example, look at St Peter – he was one of the closest to Jesus, a fisherman and person who denied knowing Jesus three times when times were rough, but then a person who continued the work of Jesus and really followed the teachings of Jesus.

Another example would be St Francis Xavier (1502-1552) who, in his 46 years, travelled around Europe, then to India, then to Indonesia and then to Japan and died trying to enter into China – all the time spreading the teachings of Jesus and converting people to Christianity. These are some of the more outstanding people.

I put it to you, though, that we are all called to be saints.

There is in the Vatican II documents a chapter entitled “The universal call to holiness” and it basically states that while there are different ways of life and different duties in life we are, each of us, called to grow in the likeness of Christ; and we are called to do this in the many and varied fields that we live and work in, like at work, at school, at home, when we are with friends and when we are with family.

Each of us is called to be holy, to be saintly.

Cardinal Hume recognised that there are three ways each of us can do this.

The first is that each of us discovers the love of God and responds to it. The test to see if this has happened is to see this love overflow to the people around us, our neighbours and especially those in need and perhaps the most neglected.

Second quality is that each of us have an unbounded confidence in God and his providence, trusting him with a trust that sometimes seems unreasonable.

The third quality is that each of us have a zest for life. Holy people are never bored, never cynical, never unkind and never bigotedly critical.

Knowing that each of us called to be saints and, if you have a look at the General Roman Calendar, you will see that there are blank spaces where names can be placed.

We might reflect this week on what we would have to do or change in our lives that might enable our name to be entered on these lists.