"These are the people who have been through the great persecution, and they have washed their robes white again in the blood of the Lamb." (Apocalypse 7:14)
How do we define a saint? Are they defined by what they achieve? The verse above from the first reading for the solemnity of All Saints gives a striking definition: saints are defined by what they suffer.
So whether we suffer at others’ hands or the inner assaults of the devil; whether we endure false words about us or false thoughts embedded within us, our trials are the raw material of our holiness.
What counts is what we do with our "blood-stained robes", our spiritual and emotional wounds.
We must wash them in the blood of the Lamb which cleanses us; his wounds heal our wounds. As St John says in the second reading: "everyone who entertains this hope must purify himself, must try to be as pure as Christ" (1 John 3:3).
This happens through prayer, through heart-to-heart sharing with others and above all through the sacraments, especially confession and the Eucharist.
Washing takes time and repeated efforts. Some stains need to be washed again and again before they come out: it can take our whole life.
And if we die still with spiritual stains, we can be washed after death in purgatory.
When we focus our meagre powers on washing our wounds in Jesus, we can live the Beatitudes listed in this feast’s Gospel.
The saints are blessed not because they have achieved great deeds by their own strength; rather they are first blessed and that gives them the strength to do these things!
Christian life is a struggle, but not primarily a struggle to achieve, rather to receive.
We live these beatitudes above all in our weakness, as Jesus lived them above all on the cross: there he was poor, gentle, mourning, hungering and thirsting for justice, merciful, pure in heart, a peacemaker and persecuted.
The wide variety of saints in heaven, those canonised and those not, give us both example and prayer.
And if we are discouraged by the mounting problems in our Church and world, we can be uplifted by the ever-increasing number of saints in heaven, opening up new channels to give us more grace.
<em>Fr David Howell is an assistant priest at St Bede’s in Clapham Park. His previous studies include canon law in Rome, Classics at Oxford and a licence in Patristics at the Augustinianum Institute in Rome. He is a regular contributor to the 'Herald'; his other articles can be accessed <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/author/frdavidhowell/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">here</mark></a>. </em>
<em>Photo: 'The Forerunners of Christ with Saints and Martyrs', Fra Angelico, 1423-1424, The National Gallery, London.</em>
