Inspired by the Saints

Dear Friend,

About the time that John the Evangelist wrote of a great multitude of 144,000 people living in the heavenly or new Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation, there were no Jews, or anyone else except Roman soldiers, living in the old Jerusalem. About forty years after the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus, Roman troops destroyed Jerusalem and killed, enslaved, or exiled all of its inhabitants. So, when John spoke of the 144,000 in the Book of Revelation, he spoke of a number that those who heard or read his words could hardly imagine.

Things beyond our imagination happen to us as well. The official saints of the Church are only a very, very few of the saints we remember this weekend. This weekend, we remember all of the saints including saints whose sanctity was known only to their families and friends and neighbors. There are more saints than we can imagine! Most will never be included among those who have a feast day on the official calendar of the Church, or who have a church named for them, but they are in Heaven just as surely as the most famous of saints. 

Today is the day to pray with all those who have gone before us and left a legacy of faith. Today is the day to remember all the holy people that we have known, all those who have inspired us by their lives of faith and service. Today is the day to remember little saints and not just big saints. And today is the day for us to be inspired and challenged by the memory of all those saints to live our lives here in response to God’s Love and someday join them in Heaven.

Fraternally,

Father Jack Clark Robinson OFM