HOMILY FOR THE FEAST OF ALL SAINTS - 1st NOVEMBER 2026

Fr Billy Swan

Dear friends. For almost a year now, I have been writing a column for ‘The Irish Catholic’ newspaper called ‘The Saints in a Year’. It is a weekly article on a saint whose feast day falls around the time the newspaper is published. The article on the saint in question recognises the historical details of their lives but focuses on some virtue, quality or trait in the saint’s life that inspires us to live our Christian vocation more fully today.

I have learned much over the past year, researching the lives of these saints. I have also been inspired by these ‘cloud of witnesses’ that God raised up at a time and in a place, when and where they were most needed.

Celebrating today’s feast of All Saints, draws us deeper into the spiritual communion we share with them. They are our friends who are close to us and who are united with us in worship of God. When the first reading today talks about the ‘huge number of saints, impossible to count of people from every nation, race, tribe and language’, the people referred to are not like the ghosts, ghouls or goblins of Halloween. Rather these were real people who lived, who existed and who knew what it was like to be human. These are fellow ‘children of God’ who are close to us and who pray for us daily.

These were the people who embodied the Gospel throughout history in ways that inspired countless more to do the same. Like us, none of the saints were perfect. For many of them, life was not easy. Many died from martyrdom. All the more reason to contemplate how they persevered in faith and how they have walked the same path of life that we walk now.

This beautiful spirituality of ‘the communion of saints’ is expressed in the liturgy. At every baptism, we ask Our Lady, Peter, Paul, Andrew, John the Baptist and all the saints to intercede for the person being baptised and who join their number because of their baptism. When a priest or bishop is ordained, the ‘litany of saints’ is sung as the candidate prostrates himself in front of the altar as a sign of worship, total surrender to God and self-giving to God’s people.

Today’s feast is a reminder that the Church is more than its earthly membership. The Church is the whole Body of Christ that includes us pilgrims here on earth, all the saints in heaven and the holy souls. For this reason, the saints are living friends who care about us, friends with whom we can form relationships, friends we will meet in eternal life, friends who yearn to help us. They show us what holiness means in this life and how to attain it while living with imperfection. The lives of the saints are an inexhaustible source of inspiration for prayer and devotion, a constant source of growth and renewal in our spiritual lives. They are real heroes whose witness has endured over centuries. They have been there before us. They give us insights we could never attain on our own. In the ordinary decisions in life, they are our friends, mentors and guides.

Finally, what all the saints have in common is blessedness. Despite the suffering of many of them, they had a deep peace and a lack of sadness. It is no coincidence that the Gospel for the feast of All Saints is the Beatitudes where Jesus shows us how to be happy and blessed.

In today’s culture, happiness is very tightly linked with personal choice which varies from person to person. We might think that this is how it always was, but previous generations also considered this question of what makes people happy. The answer they came up with was not ‘whatever you want yourself’ but rather living in a certain way and with a certain attitude.

This is what we find with the Beatitudes. Having a pure and humble heart makes us happy; gentleness makes us happy whereas as aggressiveness makes us miserable and everyone around us too; learning to mourn and to let go, makes us happy: justice is happifying as is mercy and peace-making. So too is suffering for a just cause for nothing can reach that part of us that is at peace. Finally, happy is the soul that is united to God, the source of our joy.

Friends, I believe that the most convincing argument for the truth of our faith against every denial, is the witness of the saints and the beauty that their lives have generated. May God raise up more saints today whose lives dispel doubts and who draw others to faith and to worship God with the words of the first reading:

‘Amen. Praise and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving an honour and power and strength to our God for ever and ever. Amen’.