We pause in our study of Ecclesiastes 3 to remember the Feasts of All Saints’ Day and All Soul’s Day. These two days in the liturgical calendar recall the servants of God who have gone before us to glory.
All Saints Day, November 1, is one of the major feast days
of the church year. It is a time to remember all the saints of God. As the hymn
I Sing a Song of the Saints of God (Lesbia Scott, first published in
1929) reminds us, we are all saints of God.
patient and brave and true,
who toiled and fought and lived and died
for the Lord they loved and knew.
And one was a doctor, and one was a queen,
and one was a shepherdess on the green:
they were all of them saints of God, and I mean,
God helping, to be one too.
and God’s love made them strong;
and they followed the right, for Jesus’ sake,
the whole of their good lives long.
And one was a soldier, and one was a priest,
and one was slain by a fierce wild beast:
and there’s not any reason, no, not the least,
why I shouldn’t be one too.
there are hundreds of thousands still;
the world is bright with the joyous saints
who love to do Jesus’ will.
You can meet them in school, or in lanes, or at sea,
in church, or in trains, or in shops, or at tea;
for the saints of God are just folk like me,
and I mean to be one too.
The Epistle for All Saints’ Day reminds us that we are also all
Children of God. 1 John 3:1-3 says, See what love the Father has given us,
that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason
the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s
children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is
this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And
all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
The Collect for All Saints’ Day reminds us that we are in
fact One Body. Each of us is just as capable of being saints as any of the ‘big
names’. Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and
fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord: Give us grace
so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may
come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love
you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives
and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
All Soul’s Day or the Commemoration of all the Faithful
Departed is on November 2. It’s an optional extension of All Saints’ Day as
some of us try to distinguish the ‘important’ (i.e. famous) saints from the
everyday ones found in Scott’s hymn. It is a fairly new commemoration, only
being added to the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer in 1979.
The Gospel for the day is assurance that we are all called
to hear God’s loving call, in this world or in the next: Very truly, I tell
you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life,
and does not come under judgement, but has passed from death to life. Very
truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear
the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the
Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in
himself, and he has given him authority to execute judgement, because he is the
Son of Man. (John 5:24-27)
Take some time to remember the saints in your life who have
gone before, and those still in your life.
Think about how living into the teachings of Ecclesiastes 3
may help you be a more active saint wherever you are in your life’s journey.
