Angelus Message – Feast of All Saints

 

            Blessed Solemnity of All Saints!  Today, the Holy Father prayed the Angelus in Saint Peter's Square and presented a beautiful message on the dual dimension of the Church – the Church journeying on earth in time and history, and the Church that is celebrating the never-ending feast in heaven, which is the fullness of life in God.  He pointed out that “these two dimensions are united by the reality of the 'communion of saints'”. 

            The Holy Father beautifully unfolds the mystery of communion, a “mystery totally centered on Jesus Christ: it is He who introduced this new dynamic to mankind, a movement that leads toward God and at the same time towards unity, towards peace in its deepest sense”.  This begins and unfolds on earth, and he teaches us that, “Being a Christian, being part of the Church means being open to this communion, like a seed that unfolds in the ground, dying, and sprouts upwards, toward heaven.”  Pope Benedict states that the saints lived this mystery in a very intense way and also in a very personal way.  “In fact, being united to Christ, in the Church, does not negate ones' personality, but opens it, transforms it with the power of love, and confers on it, already here on earth, an eternal dimension.” 

            He continues saying that it means to be conformed and molded to the image of the Son of God, and that the mystery of communion, this insertion in Christ, also puts us in communion with all the other members of the Church, of His Mystical Body.  This is a “communion that is perfect in 'Heaven', where there is no isolation, no competition or separation.” 

            In his final thoughts, the Holy Father reflects:

“In the saints, we see the victory of love over selfishness and death: we see that following Christ leads to life, eternal life, and gives meaning to the present, every moment that passes, because it is filled with love and hope.  Only faith in eternal life makes us truly love the history and the present, but without attachment, with the freedom of the pilgrim, who loves the earth because his heart is in Heaven.”

            He concluded by asking the Blessed Virgin Mary “to obtain for us the grace to strongly believe in eternal life and feel ourselves in true communion with our deceased loved ones”. 

 

            Today, also, at Saint Peter's Basilica, as they do each year, they display a series of relics on the main altar in Basilica.  Pilgrims are invited to venerate and honor the relics, reminding all of the great cloud of witnesses that have gone before us.  All you holy men and women, pray for us!