Homily for the Solemnity of All Saints
Saturday, November 1, 2025
Title: Ascending the Mountain
The Text: Psalm 24:1bc-2, 3-4ab, 506
In his book Let Your Life Speak, Parker Palmer described an experience of rock climbing with a guide at Hurricane Island in Maine. In the middle of the week, the instructor took Palmer to a cliff 110 feet above solid ground and taught him how to descend the face of the mountain. He would have to do the opposite of what his mind and heart wanted. He would lean back, positioning his body at right angles and placing his weight on his feet. “Lean way back,” he said, and “take the next step.” The experience was terrifying… and exhilarating. As he approached a deep hole in the rock, Palmer paused, worrying he would fall. But his instructor shouted, “If you can’t get out of it, get into it!”*
The Solemnity of All Saints is the day we pause to hear the voices of the saints, all those who have gone before us, encouraging us to “get into it.” As the Psalmist described in Psalm 24, we have a long ascent to the mountain of the Lord. Only those whose hands are sinless and whose hearts are clean will arrive there. The Solemnity of All Saints helps us on the journey and celebrates the Church triumphant, expectant, and militant.
The church triumphant. It is St. Paul who first expounded on the Mystical Body of Christ. He explained that Christ is the Head of the Body, and we are all connected through him. The Mystical Body of Christ is composed of three parts. Today we celebrate the Church triumphant in heaven. They have “fought the good fight, ran the race successfully to gain the everlasting, non-perishable crown” (2 Tim. 4:7) that awaits those who are “faithful unto death and receive a crown of life” (rev. 2:10).
Today, however, we do not celebrate just those recognized and canonized saints. They already have their individual feast days, which we celebrate joyfully throughout the church’s liturgical year. Today we honor all those faithful men and women throughout he ages who are now in heaven with the Lord. They are known to him alone.
These are our beloved predecessors in the faith, those parents, grandparents, and other relatives and friends who lived a Christ-like life and died in the Lord’s grace and friendship. We aspire to join them someday, and if we achieve our goal to get to heaven, this will be our feast day, too.
The church expectant. Also called the Church suffering, these are the souls who have died in God’s grace and friendship, but are being purified to enter the presence of the Savior. This is done in purgatory, which is a time of purgation, as the name suggests, to endure punishments for those venial sins that need to be cleansed from those souls before entering heaven. That is why we offer our Communion, Masses, and prayers for the repose of the souls in purgatory so that they can shorten that time of their separation before they can enter heaven.
The church militant. All of us who are still in this world are still amid the battle of good versus evil for the salvation of our souls. All of us who have been baptized are washed of original sin, made a co-heir of heaven and a child of God. However, the vestiges of original sin remain, which are a darkened intellect and weakened will.
That is why we renew our baptismal promises each year at Easter, to remind us of our commitment to reject Satan and all his lies and empty promises. We are to keep our “eyes fixed on Jesus,” who invites us to life abundantly in him. If we are faithful, we will one day enjoy his presence forever in the kingdom of heaven.
*Parker Palmer, Let Your Life Speak, 83-84.
Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash