Today we celebrate a special day in the life of the community of St. Paul, All Saints Sunday. We remember, in a general way, all of those, of every time and every place, who are among the household of faith and who now stand before God’s throne. In a very specific way we remember today those belonging to this household of faith who have gone home to be with their Lord during this past year.
We speak of them as saints, and so they are, not by virtue of their physical death, but rather by virtue of the death they share with Jesus in the waters of their baptism. What makes us saints, quite literally, is the blood of Jesus, and the forgiveness shed upon our lives by the mercy of God. What we see in the lives of those who belong to Jesus and who have died is their “Thank You” lived out among us in countless ordinary and sometimes extraordinary ways. Today we give thanks for these witnesses of the resurrection and for the gift that they are to us.