One Saint and two Blesseds – that’s my tally of holy hands that I have shaken. Pope St John Paul II was canonised recently, and I shook his hand and exchanged a few words back in 1990 on our first September Pilgrimage. Blessed Mother Teresa was beatified a few years back – and I shook her hand in about 1977, when accompanying her to Rome airport in our seminary minibus. She threw me – as saints do – when I asked her to pray for me, by asking the same of me. And finally, Pope Blessed Paul VI was beatified a week or two ago – and I met him, shook his hand, received a book, had a little chat (and a few photos), just after I was ordained in 1978. So – one saintly hand and two blessed ones… so far.
On the Feast of All Saints we celebrate those people who have been “raised to the altar”. They have been proclaimed as certainly having lived a profoundly Christian life and now receiving their heavenly reward. But we also, of course, celebrate those many, many “unproclaimed” saints that I hope we all have met.
Our 3 Churches here bring to twelve the number of church communities where I have served as a priest. I could not begin to count the number of deeply holy people I have had the privilege to meet. From some of the so-called most deprived areas of Wales, to leafy English country towns, to cosmopolitan Ottawa, capital of Canada – and now to the leafy northern suburbs of Cardiff, the people of God often live out their Christian calling in a way which we can only call saintly. Coping with incredible adversity or simply living out marriage or family life, taking their faith into public life no matter the cost, or humbly serving others unnoticed and unacclaimed – it is going on all around us.
So on this Feast of All Saints, give thanks for the saints that you have known, and maybe you could find some way of affirming someone today who is following Jesus so clearly. If they are indeed doing that, they will probably be the last person to want attention – so be simple and brief. Saints don’t like attention!
Fr Matthew
