Each year on 1 November, we celebrate the feast of All Saints. Many of us were brought up to view ‘the Saints’ as models (usually of perfection!) and as intercessors. They often stood between God and us and were called upon to intercede from ‘up there’ for us ‘down here’.
I have found a very different pattern of relationship in the New Testament and the age of the early martyrs in Elizabeth Johnson’s book, Friends of God and Prophets. She sees that the Saints are much closer to us than that. She writes, “In the early Church the Communion of Saints promotes companionship in Christ between the living and the dead”. In Hebrews 12:2, all those who have gone before us are called the “friends of God and prophets” and those who are now living the Christian life can look to them for inspiration on their journey.
The two become partners, companions, comrades, and co-disciples in the life of faith. Those who have died give their witness; those struggling to live faithfully on earth remember them; and both are encompassed by the saving grace of God.
This changes the position of the Saints from being above and beyond us all, to being in our lives right here, right now. They don’t stand between God and those on earth, but “alongside their sisters and brothers in the one Spirit-filled community. The letter to the Hebrews envisions it this way: these ancestors in the faith are a great ‘cloud of witnesses’ (Heb 12:1), who surround us with the encouragement of their lives. At one time they were down on the track running the race, and now they are in the stands cheering us on…”
I love this image, reminding me of those of us who are fans of sport, barracking with much enthusiasm for the best outcomes for our sporting heroes. Surrounded now by this ‘cloud of witnesses’ we gain strength to move along in our Christian lives strengthened by their example and their loving presence. We know that they have all struggled in a myriad of ways to remain faithful followers as we do today. Elizabeth puts it this way:
In recalling the courage, suffering, wisdom, beauty, defeats, and victories of people who struggled before us, we unlock what Augustine also calls their “lessons of encouragement”. We are shown that something more is possible and bolsters our own commitment.
Perhaps on All Saints Day this year, as well as honouring all our recognised and loved well-known Saints, we could celebrate members of our family and friends who have gone before us and are saints in the New Testament sense! You might like to gather their photos in a special place and remember them as being on the journey with us still, cheering us on, barracking for us in our everyday lives.
Let us thank God for the saints whom we ourselves have known and loved. It may not come easily to call them all saints, it seems as if ordinary mortals are not good or great enough, yet we have loved them, and they have loved us. And so let us give thanks to our God for them all.
Moya Unthank rsj
Excerpts from: Elizabeth Johnson CSJ, Friends of God and Prophets. SCM Press 1998.