All Saints Day Sun Nov 1, 2026      OSJ 7:30 and 9:30



Picture if you can our mid-twentieth century Philadelphia Catholic household 75 years ago. It was standard practice for Catholic parents to encourage sainthood among their children. Some of that still happens. An example here among the families that bring their children to the 9:30 Mass. In the family of my childhood we together said the rosary from time to time and I remember my mother reading to us from Saint Teresa of Lisieux’s autobiography “Story of a Soul”. For some reason I remember where I was sitting during a couple of those evening readings. I was too young to understand much of it. I had no worries at all and found sainthood to be intriguing. I must have imagined that one could be a saint and still fight with his siblings and mope when told to do something I did not want to do. Now so many decades later I still mope from time to time but my siblings and I are getting along quite well. Our getting along depends surely on their sainthood more than mine.



1. A few words about those who are saints

2. A review of our three readings

3. Finally a prayer for today’s saints found wherever there is suffering



I have seen with my own eyes only one fully canonized saint. I saw Mother Teresa of Calcutta in person before a talk which she gave at the Philadelphia Eucharistic Congress in1976. There were other saints and those on the path to sainthood in Philadelphia at the same time. I met Jesuit Father Pedro Arrupe, now with the title Servant of God, that first step toward Catholic sainthood. And I know I was in a large hall that included the man who was to be St. Pope John Paul II and included a woman now among the Servants of God, Dorothy Day.



But actually for me over the years Philly has been filled with saints. I met many saintly African American grandmothers and grand aunts in North Philadelphia when I was the pastor there in the 1980s before the parish of the Church of the Gesu closed. I still go from time to time to get a blessing from one of those elderly grandmothers. And my own parents and godparents are surely in heaven.



I have told the story of my godmother’s path to sainthood before. Kay was her name and she remained single. Kay lived her entire life in a lovely Manayunk rowhome. Her life-long home was her castle, spotless and perfect, always quiet after her parents died. But she told me that she thought that she would never get into heaven because she never had any personal suffering.



Her niece with her three teenage children, however, suddenly after a difficult divorce became homeless. Kay took them into her spotless home for a short time that went on to last about 7 or 8 months. Later she told me that she loved them but their care for her home left too much to be desired. All those months her castle appeared to her to be in disarray and sometimes in a mess. In the end, though, she thanked God for having to suffer through their presence. After that she knew she qualified for sainthood.



Now our readings: Each year as a Church we celebrate the Feast of All Saints and we read at Mass three exceptional biblical texts. In the first the writer of Revelations, said to be St. John, reveals with imagination the wondrous celebration in which Jesus welcomes the saints who were saved by his death and resurrection into the heavenly kingdom. In other NT texts Jesus likens this celebration to a Wedding banquet.



Then we read a short piece from one of John’s letters. It contains a line which a woman leader of a Christian elementary school once presented as an encouragement for teachers: “We are all God’s children now but what we will become has not yet been revealed”. She took the letters of the word YET as an acronym for her mission: “Youth Education for Tomorrow.” Today not only the young among us but each of us waits for that saintly future still YET to be revealed.



Yes, we are all God’s children even those of us living through the senior years. Such years by their very nature bring us closer to God in a quite simple way. Jesus himself, of course, experienced the lowliness of human life for the Trinity whom we call Father, Son and Spirt and so in him God learned about human nature and was moved by what goes on in human life, even mourning for Lazarus and lamenting over Jerusalem. But Jesus died comparatively young and had none of the experiences of old age. So it happens now that we seniors are teaching God what it is like to grow old. The stiffness in our limbs; the multiple health challenges, some of the inertia of daily life, the death of close friends and for many even the death of their own children. I have an idea that Jesus with his Father and Spirit appreciate how we seniors are presenting images for them of that part of life, the life of an older person, that Jesus missed. And Still we older persons just as much as young people look forward to what is Yet to be revealed. For the younger Y-E-T: Youth Education for tomorrow. For the older Y-E-T: Years Ending Twilight!



And finally, of course, we read the gospel, the extraordinary instruction of beatitudes that Jesus gave to his followers. Their service with him would bring blessedness such as in the phrase “Blessed are the Poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Each of the beatitudes an expression of sainthood as a result of imitating Jesus. A sermon for another day.



These days, sadly, it remains difficult for the saints of this world, and there are many of them, to promote a world of justice and peace. We once thought that the so-called peace ending the wars of the 20th Century could guide diplomacy into a long peaceful future. But diplomacy fell victim to vengeance. Diplomats of peace are struggling. And now the new weapons of war tempt the vengeful with empty promises. There are saints, of course, like Pope Leo who do not hesitate to speak to the powerful about peace and human dignity. But more vivid are the saints on the front lines of suffering, those caring for the dead, the wounded and the hungry. God supports their witness. And we celebrate them today as much as we celebrate sainthood certified by our Church.



Let me single out just one or two groups from among many. We praise the medical personnel serving in Gaza, Doctors without Borders among them. And Catholic Relief Services with the variety of support that they offer in Gaza including help to Fr. Romanelli, the pastor of Holy Family Parish Community in Gaza. Even these days the sounds of explosions and gun fire disturb the celebration of Mass at Holy Family Church right there in the middle of Gaza.



Today, let us hear the struggles of those suffering in war and famine. And let us pray for those saints who stand by them.