The Liturgy of this month of November opens with the Solemnity of All Saints and its proud announcement that those who have sought to follow the Lord in this life find perfection and happiness in the presence of the Blessed Trinity, the fullness of the life of the heavenly Kingdom. For the Saints are ‘that great cloud of witnesses which spurs us on to victory’ (Preface of Holy Men and Women) and we can be assured of their brotherly and sisterly care and concern for us, the fellowship of their faith and the strengthening of their prayers.
Only once we have our eyes fixed firmly on that goal of union with God - both in this life and in the world to come, can we keep the Commemoration of all the Faithful Departed, those who still journey to that fullness of life, who by our prayers are supported on that road to God. As John Henry Newman puts it in his Poem, The Dream of Gerontius,
‘and Masses on the earth and prayers in heaven, shall aid thee at the Throne of the most Highest.’
This is our hope and our loving certainty as we remember those who ‘have gone before us marked with the sign of Faith’ – that the communion of the Church means that in the love of the Father and by the working of the Holy Spirit we are still ‘one body, one spirit in Christ’ (Eucharistic Prayer 3).
Further in the month, on the 11th November, we keep the memory of one of the great non-Martyr Saints of the early centuries of the Church’s life, Saint Martin of Tours (316-397) – who even at the age of 81 was thinking not of his own comfort or needs but that of his people and his community – ‘Lord, if I am still needed by your people, I refuse no work…’.
Please God we may have that same dedication to the work of the Church – at any age!
