We are in the midst of the eight days of the celebration of the Feast of All Saints. Almost everyday of the year we remember the story of the great souls that have lived among us, marking the date of the death, because it is the day they are born into the full reality of the Kingdon of God. But there are many more people who have lived heroic lives of faith than the hundreds we remember each year. That untold multitude are the people we celebrate during the Feast of All Saints.

We remember them because we are glad for what they accomplished and because we are sad that they are no longer living visibly among us. And we remember them because, in their lives, they show us what the Kingdom of God will be, and is now, at least when we are in their earthly presence. The lives of the Saints are the true image of the Family of God. Their stories are the foretaste of what will be.

It’s striking that we remember this on what used to be the beginning of the year under the old Celtic calendar. Fall and the Harvest season is the time that nature reaches its full maturity and is given over to lavish harvest and beauty. But it’s the begining of the cold and darkeness of Winter, when the living things sleep and die, to be reborn in the Spring. The Feast of All Saints recalls to us what the mature World will be, and reminds us that, for us to arrive at the moment, we shall have to pass through our own time of sleep and desolation. Just as we see that in the Lives of the Saints.

The direct link to the video is found here.