O Almighty God, who by thy Holy Spirit hast made us one with thy saints in heaven and on earth: Grant that in our earthly pilgrimage we may ever be supported by this fellowship of love and prayer, and may know ourselves to be surrounded by their witness to thy power and mercy. We ask this for the sake of Jesus Christ, in whom all our intercessions are acceptable through the Spirit, and who liveth and reigneth for ever and ever. Amen.
That Collect is one of the treasures of our Book of Common Prayer. It’s not often used, as it is the third option of the generic commons for a saint. Though it may not be one of the most often used prayers in our tradition, it is a splendid one to consider on the Feast of All Saints. This Feast of the Church is rooted in Baptism; in the fact that we are brought into the Body of Christ which transcends space and time. And as we can see in this prayer, which is found on page 7 of your bulletin, being the Baptized people of God sanctifies us, connects us, and gives us witnesses.
The prayer starts with the Holy Spirit, the sanctifier of our souls. Sometimes you’ll hear Christians speak of “sanctification,” which is often described as growing in holiness. And certainly, that is an important part of our faith, the idea that we continually grow in Christ and are transformed by God’s love. Sanctification is rooted in our Baptism, but we must always remember that we do not ever grow out of our Baptisms. We never progress past the point of relying on God’s grace and mercy towards us. We never achieve perfect holiness or sainthood in this life. That is why all of the saints of the Church whom we remember on this Feast have died. The process of sanctification is never completed during our earthly pilgrimage.
Archbishop Rowan Williams wrote, “The Church is not holy because it is a gathering of the good and the well-behaved, but because it speaks of the triumph of grace in the coming together of strangers and sinners who miraculously trust one another to join in common repentance and common praise.” It is important to remember that saints are not made by their courage, or the soundness of their doctrine, or their good deeds, but rather saints are made by God grace acting in and through us.
Baptism is not only the starting place for our growth in the Spirit, it is also our ending place. We do not grow up into something beyond our Baptism, rather growing in holiness is about going deeper into the waters of our Baptism, into the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The saints of the Church are not any holier than you or me. They are not any more Baptized than any of us. As the Holy Spirit calls us deeper into holiness, we can be sure of exactly where that call will lead – it will lead us deeper into the waters of new birth.
Baptism is the sign of our new life in Christ, it is the source of your Christian vocation, it is the promise of our salvation, it is the ground of your identity as God’s beloved child. Baptism can never be taken from you and God’s saving grace will never be erased by any sin you commit, by any negligence in your faith, by any doubts that you have, by any rejections of God you might utter. Baptism is where we find our identity and where it is held secure.
Being confident in our Baptismal identity, the prayer then prays “Grant that in our earthly pilgrimage we may ever be supported by this fellowship of love and prayer.” All Saints reminds us of the fact that we are part of a mystical communion in Christ’s Body. Baptism is not about us as individuals, rather it is about all of Creation. Though I know it is long, I absolutely love the Litany for All Saints which we will pray after the Creed. It reminds us that we are connected to a story, that we are a people whose identity is rooted not in geography, or ideology, or race, or class, or language, or gender, or time, rather our identity is that we are the redeemed people of God.
Hearing the names of the saints of God throughout time gives me great hope in knowing that I am never alone, that though institutions and kingdoms fade away, the light of God’s love is always shining in every generation. This mystic sweet communion of all the saints means that your life and my life have deep value and meaning because we are connected to something so grand as the Body of Christ.
The prayer states that this fellowship guides us to “know ourselves to be surrounded by their witness to thy power and mercy.” All Saints is a day on which we give God thanks for all of the saints of the Church, known and unknown, and to be inspired by their examples. The saints of the Church are windows and mirrors in our faith.
They are windows in the sense that, when we look at them, we see the light of Christ shining through their lives. I recently heard someone say that the most common understanding of what makes a person Christian is that they are nice. Now, that might seem rather undogmatic and trite, but it’s also true. No one looks at a Scrooge-like person and comes away thinking that they’ve seen the light of Christ shining brightly through them. Certainly, sainthood is not about minding your manners, or being courteous, or having a nice smile, but it is about being an icon that points people towards God’s redeeming love. It can be hard for people to always put that into words, and so they simply say that Christians are supposed to be nice. But what stands behind that niceness is the light of Christ, and in the saints of the Church, we see that light shining through.
Saints are also mirrors, as they reflect that light of Christ back towards us. They show us the sorts of things that God will do in our lives. And when we look at the stories of the saints, we see that the light of Christ reflects throughout the generations, often in consistent ways. The story of a saint giving up their life for the sake of the Gospel is a holy one, but also quite common. When we think of St. Stephen who was stoned for his confession that Jesus is Lord, we might also think of St. Perpetua who was mauled by a wild beast, or St. Alban who was beheaded for protecting a priest from persecution, or Thomas Cranmer who was burned at the stake for listening to the reforming voice of the Spirit, or Johnathan Daniels who was shot in Alabama for working for racial justice, or Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was hanged because he stood up to the atrocities of the Holocaust, or Oscar Romero who was assassinated during the Mass for being a voice for the voiceless. In this sense, the saints are not dead, they are very much alive in Christ because their witness is alive today and shapes each generation.
Now, you and I may not be called to be martyrs and give up our lives for another; to be honest, I pray that none of us are called to the ministry of martyrdom. But the saints are mirrors whose lives show us what the Spirit’s work in us can do. The saints attune us to how God moves in the world, they alert us to the places where the Spirit is frequently found. So it may be that the story of St. Francis is the Spirit’s call for you to work to protect the earth and strive for ecological justice. It might be that St. Teresa of Calcutta reminds you of God’s call for us to serve the widow and the orphan. Maybe when you look at the example of Mary what you see reflected back is the courage to follow God into scary and uncertain places. It might be at CS Lewis reminds you that your creativity can be a beacon of God’s light in our world. We are surrounded with so great a cloud of witnesses in the saints of God in whom we see the light of Christ and have it reflected into our own lives.
Baptism is the source and the end of our faith, both the beginning of our faith and its destination. The Feast of All Saints reminds us that through the gracious gift of the Spirit in Baptism, we are brought into the Body of Christ, which sanctifies us and joins us into the fellowship of all the saints, giving us windows and mirrors of faith. In just a few moments we will participate in this very truth in the Eucharist. We will be reminded of our Baptism as we receive the saving grace of God. We will be united to a fellowship not only in this place, but a fellowship that extends throughout time and space. We will look through the bread and wine as a window to see the Body and Blood of Christ, given for us. And we will see our highest calling in the grace and mercy that we receive.
O Almighty God, who by thy Holy Spirit hast made us one with thy saints in heaven and on earth: Grant that in our earthly pilgrimage we may ever be supported by this fellowship of love and prayer, and may know ourselves to be surrounded by their witness to thy power and mercy. We ask this for the sake of Jesus Christ, in whom all our intercessions are acceptable through the Spirit, and who liveth and reigneth for ever and ever. Amen.
