01 November 2024 – All Saints

by Fr Fabian Dicom

I believe the translations of my homily, both in Mandarin and Tamil have been sent to you. Feel free if you want to read them while I preach in English.

The Word of God on this Solemnity of All Saints reminds us that Sainthood is not just a distant unreachable goal. We often think of Saints as impossibly, unbelievably holy people, so far removed from our lives, so distant from our experiences that it is hard to see how we could ever be like them.

But today’s Readings invite us to see Sainthood differently. They show that being a Saint is not about perfection. It is about living with courage. It is about living with humility. It is about living with love and a deep sense of justice.

When? Where? Right now, right here. 

Sainthood is a bold and brave call to all of us, to live God’s love and reflect His life in our own, here and now.

The Book of Revelation describes a huge number impossible to count of people from every nation, race, tribe and language, each sealed with the mark of God, we are told. Now this powerful image shows us that Sainthood is not about a small select group of heroes or heroines. It is a vast diverse gathering of people who dared to let God’s love flow through them despite human fragility, despite weaknesses, despite limitations. To allow that God to come in and act in our lives.

These Saints, ordinary people transformed by grace, tell us that sanctity, tell us that holiness is not reserved for some ‘perfect’ few but it is the destiny and possibility for every one of us.

Sainthood, then, is about our willingness to be part of God’s work, regardless of our limitations.

In the first letter of John, the Second Reading, we hear that we are already children of God. And we must believe this. We need to believe this, that we are already children of God.

Who and yet what we are to become has not yet been revealed, we are told. Now what does this really mean that God sees you and me as holy, even before we fully realise it ourselves.

In every act of love, in each time we stand up for the voiceless and in our effort towards justice, we are revealing the Saint within us. True Sainthood begins here. Not in perfection but in every small moment:-
~ where we choose compassion over indifference,
~ when we choose courage over fear,
~ when we choose generosity over selfishness,
~ when we choose forgiveness over resentment,
~ when we choose truth over convenience,
~ when we choose peace over conflict,
~ when we choose integrity over compromise.

All these and much more are not alien to you. You have this experience in your life. You have done that before. And remember that. The Lord gives us the grace to move to that, to be that Saint He is calling us to.

And finally in the Gospel, in Matthew’s Beatitudes, Jesus gives us a challenging vision of holiness. Something that does not fit into the world’s standards.

The Beatitudes tell us this. It is not the powerful. It is not the famous. It is not the flawless who are blessed. It is the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, the peacemakers and those who thirst for justice.

Now Jesus radically redefines greatness and shows us that holiness is woven into the very fabric of ordinary, often messy, human experiences.

We may not feel saintly in times of mourning or when we struggle for justice. Yet these are precisely the moments where sainthood becomes real.

We can take inspiration from the Saints. We know many Saints who live this truth in radical ways. One of my favourite Saints, a modern-day Saint, Saint Oscar Romero, maybe some of you have heard about him.

The story of Oscar Romero is a powerful example of how Sainthood can be journey of transformation. Now he began his ministry as a quiet, somewhat conservative priest, and later an Archbishop known for a cautious approach and loyalty to the church’s rigid structures and even sometimes to the government.

But as he witnessed the brutal repression and suffering of his people in El Salvador, a Latin American country, something in him began to shift. He could not ignore the injustices around him. Now instead of staying silent, he chose, in a very, very big way:-
~ compassion over indifference,
~ courage over fear
~ and truth over comfort.

Totally the values of the Gospel. Totally the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Romero’s change was slow but profound. He went from being a reserved pastor to a bold voice for the oppressed, even calling out the government and military forces responsible for human rights abuses.

He often said: If God accepts the sacrifice of my life, may my blood be the seed of freedom.

On the 23 March 1980, Romero, by then a leading figure in the struggle for human rights and justice in El Salvador, delivered his sermon over national radio. The very next day the Archbishop was assassinated. He was shot dead while celebrating Mass.

His last words were: May God have mercy on the assassin.
May God have mercy on the assassin, the one who killed him. 

For Romero, Sainthood was not about a perfect life but about allowing his heart to be moved by the cries of the suffering. His transformation into a fearless advocate for justice shows us that Sainthood is not a static state but a response, a decision to live God’s values no matter the cost. Without fear, without favour.

So my dear brothers and sisters, how does this empower us? What does it mean for us?

It calls us to shift, from waiting for Sainthood to embracing it today, right where we are. It is a reminder that our daily lives, our struggles, our doubts and small acts of kindness are the fields, are the grounds where holiness grows.

Each time we strive for peace,
each time we choose mercy over judgment,
each time we act with courage,
we step closer to that great multitude of Saints.

This All Saints Day, let us ask ourselves: What would it look like to live as Saints in today’s world? How would it change our families? How would it change our parish, our communities, our society?

We might not have the courage of a martyr or the wisdom of a mystic. I certainly don’t. But we can let God’s love flow through us, starting with the simplest acts of compassion.

This is how Saints are made. Not in grand gestures but in the countless choices we make to love and to serve.

My dear brothers and sisters, God calls us to be Saints, not because we are perfect but because we are willing.
Willing to live with hope in the midst of despair,
to seek justice in the face of oppression
and to love radically without counting the costs.

Without counting the costs.

This is the empowered radical part of holiness that the Saints have shown us and the very same path that you and I are called to walk today.

Amen.

Click below to listen to homily and watch video:-

Click to live-stream Mass on 01 November 2024