Looking Back So We Can Look Ahead
“Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better so that they would not, without us, be made perfect.”
Hebrews 11:39-40
Each year, Halloween, Oct. 31, is followed by All Saints’ Day on Nov. 1.
Perhaps for many of us, All Saints Day is like Boxing day: a day of indulgence-hangover, when we pick up the debris of revelry and groan about too much sugar and possibly find half-eaten chocolates left behind by young people.
All Saints’ Day is also an invitation extended to us to look back so that we can look ahead. Further back than last night, that is. We can look back over the ages at the lives of those believers who have gone before us.
While many times all Christians are referred to as saints in Scripture (e.g., Acts 9:32, Ephesians 4:12, Philippians 4:21; and we remember all of them tomorrow on All Souls Day), the tradition of the Church has lifted individuals who have shown great faith and lived out holiness: those whom we would call the Saints.
This recognition is not for their benefit or glory, but for our benefit and God’s great glory.
As the writer of Hebrews notes at end of the famous “Hall of Faith” in Chapter 11: though the world was not worthy of them, though those saints were commended for their faith, yet they did not receive what was promised: the better country promised by God, the heavenly one (Hebrews 11:16) shared with Christ in the resurrected life yet to come.
They are still waiting for that promise from God. They are still waiting for that promise because He is not yet done with His work of redemption in our world, in our lives and the lives of those around us. And we are called to take part in God’s work of redemption today.
The witness of the saints can bear us up and spur us on in the good works God has set out for us!
I recommend books such as “Lesser Feasts and Fasts” by the Episcopal Church, online and in print, which has brief biographies and prayers to reflect through the year, and “Stories of the Saints” by Carey Williams, which has illustrations and awe-inspiring tales of real saints for the young (and young at
heart!).
A Prayer
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.
“The Book of Common Prayer,” page 245
