Perennially, Indigenous communities have honored relationships with unseen but very present spirits and ancestors.   Today, a hyperlinked, globalized world entangles us in a thick web of relationships that deeply affect us yet remain, in many ways, mysterious and out of our control. Contemporary culture connects us as never before, yet, ironically, tends to define power and success as separationand domination -  the ability to ignore/deny/ or manipulate those connections.

Today’s feast celebrates an intimate, worldwide web of spiritual connections grounded in the power of love: God’s love in embracing us as children, and our human love and support for one another across boundaries of space, time, and even life and death. This communion connects all saints -- every finite sinner whose heart is set on God --with the entire company of ‘friends of God,’ living and dead – neighbors across the globe and ancestors who’ve gone before us.

In business and politics we often hear, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” Well, good news! The communion of saints offers a treasure trove of connections in the highest (and lowest) places, ancestors and neighbors ready to listen, mentor, cheer us on, and pray for and with us. Yet, except when searching for a parking space or a lost item, I know that I tend to go about my days mostly oblivious to this amazing source of grace and assistance.

So, what does our faith tell us about ‘all the saints’, and what it means for us to ‘be in that number’? Today’s scripture readings—the same readings chosen every single year --offer some clues.  

The book of Revelations’ vision of the end times pictures the saints as a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue.”-- Finite sinners like us who’ve placed their hearts and hope with our saving God. All have faced tribulations and suffered distress, and with God’s help, all have come out on the other side.  

Uncontained by institutional boundaries, the ‘true church’ (the catechism tells us!)  IS this communion of saints. And, pious paintings aside, these saints are a motley crew, a crazy quilt of characters with a wild spectrum of temperaments and talents, foibles and finitude, stories of sin and holiness. Some we know or remember by name, but most are historical ‘nobodies.’ Some live long lives, but more end their lives on earth tragically, brutally, or too soon. Whatever our predicaments and hurts, these friends can relate to us ---they’ve been through it.  

John’s epistle rejoices in the great love that God has bestowed on us, that we may be called the children of God. We can rest in that identity now. Much about our future is yet to be revealed—above our current pay grade. Still, as children of a God of love, we do know this: “When it is revealed, we shall be like God, for we shall see God as God is.”

Finally, as we traverse the joys, hopes, griefs, and anxieties of lo cotidiano, our everyday lives, how can we tell who’s ‘in that number’ – and how do we join them? In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus discloses the answer. For Pope Francis, in showing us the way of Jesus,“ The Beatitudes provide the “identity card” of Christians (and I’d add, our entry ticket into the communion of saints, and guide for recognizing fellow finite-sinner-saints).  

To live humbly, to share one another’s grief and pain, to be compassionate, to hunger and thirst for justice and work for peace, is to live in solidarity, to proclaim that “a different world is possible,” and to contribute to its birth. In our present, deeply messed up world, living this way puts us at risk of misunderstanding, scorn, and persecution—but Jesus promises, in the end, God’s intentions and desires, God’s kingdom will triumph.

So, where do we start? How about with the very first beatitude-- “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Pope Francis describes The poor in spirit as “those who are and who feel poor in the intimate, most inner core of their being.” This is our human condition. “We are in need of everything. We are all poor in spirit; we are beggars.”  

Dominant culture teaches us to detest and flee from this truth. But, says Francis, “as much as we do our best, we remain radically incomplete and vulnerable.” Constantly seeking to hide or eliminate our weaknesses leaves us isolated, weary, and distressed. Worse, “If I do not accept being poor, I hate everything [and everyone] that reminds me of my fragility.”

Jesus and his friends, the saints, disclose a different, liberating perspective: being poor is an opportunity for grace! We have the right to be poor in spirit because this is who we really are, and this is the path to the Kingdom of God. Resting in this reality, we gain freedom of the heart, freedom to see and feel our invisible connectedness, and to respond in loving solidarity.

But let’s be real—the record shows that to live as a finite-sinner-saint-- beatitudinally, in spiritual and practical solidarity with our neighbors and against the powers of sin and death— is beautiful, but it’s a difficult, scary, and costly path. We cannot do it alone, and we need all the help we can get. Today’s great feast promises us exactly that.

Right now, a cloud of witnesses is extending a special, limited-time offer to you and me to renew --or activate --our personal membership in the blessed communion we celebrate today. By God’s grace, let’s do it!

May all the saints Pray for Us! Amen.