Father Tim Lemlin
At the other end of the table was a bowl full of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, still warm from the oven. Beside the bowl, was a little note scrawled in a child's handwriting which read, "Take all you want, God's watching the apples."
We have been taught to believe that a person is only a saint when that person is declared as one by the church. St. Paul and the early church members have a very different understanding regarding saints. In fact, one of the names that the early church members used when speaking or writing about those who had experienced the gospel was "the saints."
When we celebrate the feast of all saints we are not celebrating those who have died. This way of thinking causes us to believe that sanctity can only happen after a person has died. No, we are celebrating all who have experienced the gospel message and know that God dwells with them now. Death is not the criteria required for sanctity. Neither is perfection. Often, in fact, the road to wholeness/holiness is through imperfection.
Sanctity isn't something we achieve. It is something with which we participate. It is much too big, as is sin and death, for us to experience alone. As we participate in sin and death, so too can we participate in holiness and life. We each have within us at this moment the power of God. The only thing that prevents us from living the power of God is that many of us are not aware that we have it. We are all children of God, not later when we die, but now, this very moment.
