I thank God for all saints, may we join their number

Today is All Saints Day, a feast in which we marvel at the resplendent majesty of the Body of Christ, the Church.

C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity the following brilliant observation:

How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different are the saints.

Today the church celebrates the glorious diversity of the men and women who have lived their lives in every time and place, in their own ways, and with their own gifts, as Christ’s hands and feet working to show the world the love of God.

The communion of saints is truly the full proclamation of the Gospel, for it takes the message of God’s love for the world and incarnates it so that in every nation and in each age there are those who share the love of God with their hands and feet, with their embrace and tears, with their pain and joy, with their very lives.

Today I am reminded of the heart of what it means to be a Christian, which is to be a “little Christ.” We are encouraged by the saints to say to God, “here is my life, make me a saint too. I want to be the glorious gift of love you made me to be, not the monotonous mimeograph of misdeeds, but the immortal individuality of my innate identity give by your grace.”

That is my prayer today. I thank God for all the saints who inspire me, and ask that his grace might lead me to join their number!