The twin observances of the Feast of All Saints, All Saints’ Day, and the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, All Souls’ Day, are the annual ‘family celebration’ of Christ’s Holy Catholic Church! The Church on earth, the Church Militant, prays for all who have died in the faith, the Church Expectant, asking that they may continually grow in God’s love and service, that they may increase in knowledge and love of God and go from strength to strength in the life of perfect service in the heavenly kingdom, that they may have entrance into the land of light and joy in the fellowship of God’s saints, and that to them may be opened the gates of larger life so that they may be received more and more into God’s joyful service and win the eternal victory. No matter how virtuous a man might be, when he departs from this world, the Church accompanies his departure, his exodus, with prayer for him to the Lord.
Simultaneously, when the Church in her collective voice attests to the righteousness of the reposed person, Christians, apart from prayer for him, are taught by the good example of his life and place him as an example to be imitated. When the Church’s common understanding of the sanctity of the reposed person is confirmed by distinctive testimonies, such as martyrdom, bold confession, self-sacrificial service to the Church, the gift of healing, and especially when the Lord confirms the sanctity of the reposed person by miracles after his death when he is remembered in prayer, the Church honours him in a particular way. Our Lord calls His beloved servants ‘friends.’ ‘Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you’ (Saint John 15.14-15). 'To the Saints honour must be paid as friends of Christ, as sons and heirs of God; these are made treasuries and pure habitations of God. Are not those, then, worthy of honour who are the patrons of the whole race and make intercession to God for us? For those who worship God will take pleasure in those things whereby God is worshipped: let us believers honour the Saints, for God is also worshipped in so doing.' (Saint John of Damascus, On the Orthodox Faith 15). The Church honours Our Lord’s friends, the Saints in the Church Triumphant, the Saints in glory. He has promised to His Saints the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom: ‘In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also’ (Saint John 14.2-3).
When the Church determines that this glorification has happened for a fellow member of the Church, the prayers of the Church for him take on a new character, a way of prayer that emphasises the Church’s communion with him: the prayers then recognise and praise his virtues, attributes, struggles and victories and beg the Lord for grace to follow his example, witness and teaching. The Book of Common Prayer is saturated with such forms of prayer in honour of the Saints. In the ancient liturgies, the primitive pattern of Christian prayer petitions for the prayers of the Saints, so that the faithful on earth might find with them mercy and moral progress, and receive aid in times of spiritual need and testing.
‘Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them’ (Revelation 14.13). The Church blesses and honours the sacred memory of the Saints, raising them to the Altars in the liturgical year, in the celebration of their feasts, and in the offering of the Holy Eucharist on their behalf. Our Lord says of them: ‘And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one’ (Saint John 17.22). The Church indeed glorifies God in His Saints, according the account of our Blessed Saviour.
‘He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward’ (Saint Matthew 10.41). The Church in her faith and liturgy receives the righteous man as a righteous man. A brother or sister of the Lord, the Saint is also our brother or sister in the Lord. ‘For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother’ (Saint Matthew 12.50). The Saints are our elder brothers and sisters in the Family of God, the new Israel. They are to us brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers in the One Body of Christ, and we express our love for them in our communion of prayer for them and with them. The mystery of the Saints dwelling at the Throne of the Lamb of God in Heaven and their intercession there before God for the Church Militant is described in Holy Scripture: ‘And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands (Revelation 5.11). ‘And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand’ (Revelation 8.3-4).
Our communion of prayer with the Church Triumphant is the fulfillment and realisation of that bond of love and grace between Christians on earth and the Heavenly Church of which the Apostle writes: ‘But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect’ (Hebrews 12.22-23).
Please join us for our annual family celebration! Holy Communion will be celebrated on All Saints’ Day, Thursday 1st November, at Noon and 7pm. Holy Communion will again be celebrated on All Souls’ Day, Friday 2nd November, at Noon and 7pm.
God bless you!
+Chad
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