Solemnity of All Saints 2022

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
November 1, 2022

My brothers and sisters in Christ,¹

Today’s beautiful solemnity is really a celebration of our human destiny, of God’s beautiful promise for our life.

One of the Church’s great saints, St. Ambrose, once said: “The Church is beautiful in her saints.”²

So that means the Church is beautiful in each one of us. God made us to strive for holiness, to be his image in the world! This is why we are here, my dear brothers and sisters. This is the beautiful possibility that we have in our lives.

And that’s what this great solemnity is all about — All Saints’ means all of us. But of course, first of all it means all the saint in heaven.

We have that beautiful Communion of Saints in the tapestries here at our Cathedral. So it’s a beautiful reminder to all of us for the intercession of all the saints. You may notice also that some that are in the tapestries are not yet canonized saints — so again, that means all of us.

So as we heard in the first reading of today’s Mass, God gives us an incredible vision of heaven. Heaven is filled with saints — “a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people and tongue.”

So we know this great multitude starts with the saints that have been canonized. As I said before, St. Peter and St. Paul, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Mother Teresa, St. Bibiana, St. John Paul II — any many more are the saints that we go to for their intercession for each one of us.

The Church holds up these saints to inspire us and intercede for us in our Christian journey. But there are many more saints we’ve never heard of.

But the vast majority of the saints, that “great multitude” — are people like us. People nobody has ever heard of.

Because holiness is not something only for special people, or for those in the Church with ordained or consecrated ministries. All of us in the Church are called to holiness, each in our own way.

No matter who we are, no matter what our condition in life. You and I are called to walk in the footprints of Jesus, to conform our lives to his image, and to seek the Father’s will in everything that we do.

So, how do we do it? How do we strive for holiness on earth and make our way to be saints in heaven?

I think Jesus shows us the path in today’s passage from the Gospel, the beautiful teaching of the “Beatitudes.” So we can think of the Beatitudes as kind of the “guidebook,” or the “blueprint” for how we grow in holiness.

And first of all, I will say, my dear brothers and sisters, that the secret is that the path of holiness is found in our everyday life.

Holiness for us will be found through the ordinary things we do, every day. Raising a family. Going to work. Serving in our parish, in our community. This is how we will become a saint.

So what Jesus is telling us with the Beatitudes is that in our daily lives we need to carry out our responsibilities with love and integrity — trying to serve one another and to serve God in everything we do.

The Beatitudes tell us that we need to live and work with humility and purity. We need to have a simple lifestyle. We need to bring a spirit of mercy and forgiveness, and try to be peacemakers in our relationships.

And the Beatitudes also tells us that we need to care for people in our society, we need to have a heart for the poor, and compassion for the vulnerable.

Finally, the Beatitudes tell us that we need to live these values and these priorities — even if they are not popular or if they are opposed by our culture and society.

So being a saint does not consist in grand gestures. I would say just the opposite. Holiness shines in humility. Sanctity means service — often it’s service that no one sees except for the people we’re serving.  
So, my dear brothers and sisters, let us ask for the grace today to stay faithful to our vocation to be holy! Let’s ask for the grace to live the Beatitudes, like Jesus Christ, as sons and daughters of God.

And let us ask all the saints in heaven today to intercede for us — that we might join them one day in that “great multitude” in heaven.

And especially let us ask Our Blessed Mother Mary, who loves each one of us as she loved her only Son, Jesus for her intercession. May she help us to become the saints we are made to be.