Sermon for the Feast of All Saints, 2026
If the word “saint” means someone without sin, you are never going to make the cut, for, truth be told, most of your thoughts and actions have been nothing, at all, like those of someone without sin. If “saint” means someone without sin, you have no hope, whatsoever, of joining the heavenly host.
Yet, Beloved, the word “saint” does not mean someone without sin; it means a holy one, one separated from the world and set apart by God for God. The saints in heaven are not there because they never sinned; no, they stand before the throne because their sins have been forgiven. As the elder tells St. John, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Not in purgatory, not by their own suffering, nor by the Masses and the money of those they left behind; rather, in the blood of the Lamb. They are not there because they earned it; they are there by grace. Despite their sins, doubts, and the turmoil they experienced in their lives, they held fast, in faith, to the One who earned heaven for them.
Readings:
First Reading: Revelation 7:2-17
Epistle: 1 John 3:1-3
Holy Gospel: Matthew 5:1-12
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