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Reflections After Paschaltide 2026: All Saints

Reflections After Paschaltide 2026: All Saints

Last updated on: May 31, 2026 at 1:15 am by Henry Karlson

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Reflections After Paschaltide 2026: All Saints 2026-05-31T01:15:27-05:00 Henry Karlson

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Unknown author: Miraculous Icon of the Mother of God “Pantanassa” ( Vsetsarytsya ) with Archangels Michael and Gabriel, 12 apostles and saints / Wikimedia Commons

Everyone is called to the kingdom of God. Everyone can even experience it, at least in part, during their lifetime. Christ tells us that the kingdom of God is at hand; it can even be said to be within us. As Christians, we opened up to it, found ourselves in it, through our baptism, when we became a part of the body of Christ. The kingdom of God is not just for us. Christ draws everyone into himself so that even those who lived before the incarnation can find him coming to them (such as in his descent into the realm of the dead), where he gives everyone the chance to be with him, join themselves to him, to become a part of his mystical body. Everyone who does so finds they are joined with everyone else who has done so; they are joined together, becoming members of one body, sharing with each other the Spirit of Christ. Through the Spirit, we find ourselves truly realizing our unity with others in the body of Christ as we find ourselves in communion with each other, a communion which includes everyone Christ has incorporated into himself, especially the saints. We should look to the saints and see what God has done in and through them, even as we should find a way to embrace our communion with them, a communion which allows them to intercede for us, as they perceive through it, our needs, our desires, even our requests. We can learn from them and their lives, both from the good which they did, but also the bad, using their bad as examples of what we should avoid doing ourselves (but also, of how God can be merciful, if we repent and change our ways). Their desire to follow God, their openness to God, especially to the Spirit of God, allowed them to grow in grace and become holy, despite whatever bad they might have done along the way. That is, they are holy thanks to the help of grace, a grace which perfected them, even as it can perfect us. The more we learn about the saints, either by reading about them and what they did, or engaging our communion with them, the more we should see how they were just like us. They did both good and bad. But we should also learn that despite themselves and their worst instincts, God was able to work with and through them to reveal the glory of the eschatological kingdom of God to all.

When we celebrate all the saints, we celebrate the work of Christ, the way Christ has brought grace into the world that allows even great sinners to become holy. Nonetheless, we must recognize there was something about them and how they lived which allowed that grace to perfect them. Holiness is not achieved by grace alone, as if grace forces holiness upon us. We must cooperate with grace for its potential to be activated, which is why the saints are rightfully recognized for what they did. Through them, we learn there can be and are a variety of ways by which we can become holy. Grace perfects nature, it doesn’t supplant or destroy it; and so, the saints embraced it, worked with it, and cooperated with it, becoming more than what they could have ever been without it. Through grace, the saints transcended themselves, and it is through that transcendence they were able to become representatives of the kingdom of God to us all. We should learn from them, and imitate them by also transcending ourselves so that we can also become proper representatives of the eschatological kingdom of God to others. The way we do so will be different from the way everyone else does so, because we are all unique persons. Each person, each saint, reveals another quality of the kingdom of God. But because we are persons, we are relational creatures and the fullness of the experience of the kingdom of God is a communal experience, which is why the saints who came before us, the saints who came before the Christian era, such as those who endured hardships or were martyred, would receive their reward later, after we joined ourselves with them: “And all these, though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect” (Heb. 11:39-40 RSV).

The author of Hebrews wants us to see that we will not be perfect if we try to be individuals cut off from everyone else; it will only be found in and through our communion with everyone else in the body of Christ. We are persons, not individuals, and so our perfection must keep those relationships intact and perfect them as well. This is why we must believe that our relationships with the saints remains intact; they are a part of the body of Christ, and even though they died, they are alive in Christ. God is a God of the living and not the dead, and all those who come to Christ will never fully perish but have eternal life.

Whenever we commemorate the saints, whenever we remember them, we find ourselves in communion with them. We are celebrating them and what they did, but we are also celebrating the eschatological kingdom of God, and how, in the incarnation, the eschaton became immanent. We can and should join ourselves with the cloud of witnesses who came before us, communing with them, experiencing the kingdom for ourselves, becoming saints ourselves. We need them just as much as they need us, and both of us need those who come after us, because our perfection is had through Christ who brings us everyone throughout history together as one. We should, therefore, remember the saints, putting aside every division which sin uses to divide us:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (Heb. 12:1-2 RSV).

Sin divides, and so long as we embrace it, it has us deny our communion with others. Setting it aside, looking to the kingdom of God as it is revealed in each and every one of us, will allow us to experience the kingdom of God in Christ, who is “seated at the right hand” of the Father in a glory which is shared with all those who join themselves not only with him, but with everyone else who are found in his body.

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N.B.: While I read comments to moderate them, I rarely respond to them. If I don’t respond to your comment directly, don’t assume I am unthankful for it. I appreciate it. But I want readers to feel free to ask questions, and hopefully, dialogue with each other. I have shared what I wanted to say, though some responses will get a brief reply by me, or, if I find it interesting and something I can engage fully, as the foundation for another post. I have had many posts inspired or improved upon thanks to my readers.

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