Message from Fr. Luis Arboleda, IVE

St. Gregory the Great Catholic Parish

This Sunday we celebrate a special solemnity in our Church calendar: The Solemnity of All Saints. On this day, which falls every year on November 1st, the Church commemorates all the saints of all time, both known and unknown.

What is a saint?
A saint is, put simply, someone who is in heaven, enjoying the vision of God, the “beatific vision”, as we say in theology. However, we also say that someone is a saint because they are holy. In fact, the word “saint” comes from the Latin “sanctus”, which means holy.

What is holiness?
Holiness is spiritual perfection. Holiness is a state of the soul in which someone has all the virtues to a perfect degree. They have become a living “image”, or representation, of Jesus Christ, who is Himself the perfect “image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15). They are holy as God is holy.

All the saints in heaven, then, are holy. They are all spiritually perfect. Holiness, however, is something we should strive for here on earth. In fact, holiness is the vocation of every Christian: every Christian is called to strive for holiness, following the words of the Lord Jesus, “You shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48).

The saints, when they were on earth, strove for holiness. Even in the face of life’s greatest challenges, they made holiness their one aim. May their example inspire us and their intercession assist us to do the same.

Fr. Luis Arboleda, IVE
Parochial Vicar