This Feast was instituted in the Eastern Church during the 4th century for the purpose or remembering all the martyrs of the early Church. By the fourth century Diocletian had made it impossible to give every martyr a separate day, and an All Martyr’s Day was already observed in the East. Gradually, it developed to also include the non-martyrs. As such, it can be said that the purpose of this Feast in the Holy Catholic Church serves to commemorate all of our brothers and sisters in Christ, known and unknown, who have moved on to their eternal glory.
So intimately is the attainment of heaven bound up with the Redemption that in days of early faith the Feast of All Saints was celebrated with as much pomp and joy as Easter.
This is the feast of every triumphant human soul. This feast mirrors the hope of every human being that at the end there will be justice, peace, bliss and happiness. That at the end there will be no evil in their midst. We belong to a church that is holy with the saints as the guarantee of its holiness. When the Son of man comes again will he find faith on earth? This Feast also serves the purpose of awakening our awareness that we It is also an encouragement for us reminding us of our nature as members of this church. We are sinners but called to holiness. It reminds us that through the Holy Spirit all of us are called to become saints. St. Paul in his letters addressed the believers as Saints.
The Second Reading from the First Letter of John reminded us of the great love of God who has chosen to call us His children. During our sanctification through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are being transformed into the likeness of Christ. “What we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.” This feast gives us an assurance of a bright future. It is this future which makes us overcome despair and the sense of hopelessness in this world especially in times of sufferings. With no belief in the future life many who despair see no hope and, therefore, simply rely on their own wits to survive. More importantly, this a feast of hope not only for ourselves but for the countless people in the world who do not know Christ and God their father. It is our firm belief that the power of God and his goodness cannot be confined in and by our churches. The churches are made of people who cannot even reach out to everyone who have not heard of Christ. Certainly this could not impede God in His work of salvation. This is the prayer of the Church to beg for God’s mercy for those who do know His Son whom He sent into the world.
Jesus speaks of the beatitudes. In these beatitudes there is nothing characteristically catholic or Christian. It is the goodness of God in human beings, or if you like to call it grace. And anyone can respond to it. God is at work in the midst of all human beings all over the world in the past present and future. No church can confine and limit the love of God for all human beings. If this is true then we have pushed God to a corner. It is like that God has no “contingency” plans. It may be possible that one is outside the church but no one is outside Christ. Christ embraces all human beings. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. What we cannot do as church will certainly be fulfilled by God and in God in God’s own way. Our limitation and inadequacies are absolutely not God’s too. The love of God goes beyond our churches. All human beings who die for justice, who die for love, who sacrifice their lives for the sake of others are saints regardless of church affiliation.
Men and women who lived the beatitudes are countless but they are unheralded. That is why John describes a countless number of multitudes around the throne of God. Who are these countless multitudes. They are those who have been visited by the unknown God and responded with joy to the goodness this unknown God has planted in their hearts. They followed the Good in their lives and gave their lives to it. Christians keep up this hope in the world for the sake of others. Christians witness to their faith that there is a life of unending peace, justice, love, and happiness. When there will be longer any basis for exclusion and division, where all are equal because all are children of God beloved to Him in Christ.
What about our canonized saints? Are they necessary? The Catholic church declared a number of the faithful as saints, namely, canonized so that the saints in heaven are not merely legends or heroes of the church. To assert categorically that they were people who live such and such a time on earth, with particular nationality and culture who in their own time responded creatively as to how to follow Christ towards sanctity in their own circumstances in life. There is no template for a saint. Each one is unique. And they did not start being holy. Some of them can be considered a poor candidate for being a saint. The saint is God’s goodness to the individual and the gift to humanity.