A funny story I’ve always enjoyed retelling since my naughty high school years: Two Mr. Suave look-a-likes were bragging about their familiarity with the saints. This happened in such time when sporting a mustache is a fad. In those days, not to have a mustache is tantamount to being considered less a man! To find out who was truly knowledgeable, they agreed to do a contest. Each would have to mention a saint’s name. For every name one uttered, he would pluck a strand of the other’s mustache. (Just imagine what’s at stake, huh.) So the contest began.
Mr. Suave I: “St. Augustine!” He then plucked a strand of the other’s mustache which caused the other to be teary-eyed.
Mr. Suave II: “St. Joseph!” Then he did the same to the other.
“St. Therese!” “St. Magdalene!” “St. Thomas!” “St. Francis!” So on and so forth… They were both shedding tears because of the pain. Then they came to the point that one could no longer recall a saint. Mr. Suave II began to be frantic for he was about to lose, when all of a sudden he grinned and, at the top of his lungs, shouted, “Todos Los Santos!”
Ouuucccchhhh! That ended the mustache era.
All Saints Day Solemnity is honoring not just a favorite saint but all the unsung heroes of outstanding love and dedication to Christian life whom we believed have made it, “without much fanfare,” to heaven. While our devotion to our individual patron saints gives us the opportunity to emulate the exceptional virtues of their lives and maybe rely too on their intercession, the celebration of All Saints Day brings to mind the “communion of saints” and offers us the chance to honor the whole crowd of saints.
John’s vision as proclaimed in the first reading (Rev. 7, 2-4, 9-14) depicts “the great multitude which no one could count from every nation, race, people, and tongue… who have survived the great period of trial.” This reminds us of the communal dimension of our destiny as God’s children. Our journey to God is not the individualist’s I-and-my-savior affair. Instead, today’s solemnity, instructs us that our journey is the path of loving relationship between us, as God’s people, and God, as a Trinity—a community of persons. Our responsorial psalm rightly exclaims our desire as a people: “Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.” Furthermore, the second reading (1 Jn 3, 1-3) reminds us that we are called “God’s children” because of the Father’s love and we shall see him as he is.
Again, we don’t journey as isolated individuals. We journey as a people… as children of God… as a family of God towards a destiny which is nothing but communion with one another, with the whole of creation, and with the Triune God.
This is an invitation to rethink our convenient individualistic spirituality. We are challenge to rise above our propensity towards self-righteousness, our penchant to a holier-than-thou piety that looks down on others whose lives may not measure up to our own standards. We have to correct our anong-pakialam-ko-sa-yo attitude to life. Of course, any spirituality or relationship with God has to be very personal and unique to the individuals. However, it has to find its expression in the market place, its celebration in the community. After all, love, which is at the heart of Christian spirituality, cannot thrive in isolation. It flourishes in relationships. It blossoms in a fertile garden we call community.
So, if our definite future is communion of the saints as promised by what we are celebrating today, our present way of living must, to some degree, already conform to such a vision. We need to stop thinking as an isolated “I” in competition with others. We need to think family. Think community. Hawak-kamay… sa paglalakbay… as the song goes… in good times… in bad times… in the very dry seasons… and in the very wet seasons of this changed climate!
The beatitudes proclaimed once more in the gospel reading (Mt. 5, 1-12) are the key towards our transformation into a holy community not only in that definite future but already in the here and now. To be “poor in spirit,” for instance, can be an invitation to be free from material enslavement and to be free for equitable sharing of possessions so that our poor neighbors may indeed have their share. To “mourn” may be an invitation to empathize with those who are suffering and therefore move beyond our selfish personal whims and caprices to reach out to them. To be “merciful” is to be forgiving to those who have wronged or hurt us. It’s an invitation to reconciliation—a necessity for any imperfect human community. To be single-hearted is to make God our deepest longing and priority in life rather than the misleading materialistic values to which our secular society is helplessly being configured. To be “peacemaker” is a challenge to work for harmony in this fragmented society. To endure persecution and insult because of the Lord’s name is to share in the redemptive suffering of Christ.
We are destined to be a community of saints in heaven. Many of our brothers and sisters, by God’s grace we believe, have gone ahead of us. We honor them today. But while on this earth, we can endeavor to make our families and communities conform to that glorious community of saints we are hoping for. Let us be guided by the path to happiness laid out for us by the Lord’s teachings on the beatitudes. No one journeys in isolation. We journey together as God’s family. Hawak-kamay… sa paglalakbay.
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