Sermon for the Feast of All Saints
Feast of All Saints
Church of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe
La Crosse, Wisconsin
1 November 2025
Rev 7, 2-12
Mt 5, 1-12
Sermon
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Today, we begin the month of the Church Year dedicated, in a special way, to prayer for the dead, the Church Suffering, with whom we, the Church Militant, have intimate communion. On All Souls Day, which follows today’s feast, Holy Masses will be offered in all churches and chapels throughout the world for the eternal repose of the immortal souls of our brothers and sisters who have gone before us in death and are in the state of Purgatory, completing the remission of the temporal punishment due to their sins. Throughout the month, we will be remembering, in thought and prayer, our beloved deceased brothers and sisters, prayerfully visiting the places of their burial, if possible, and having Holy Masses offered for their eternal rest. We will also be remembering the dead whom we do not know but who have need of our prayers. November and All Souls Day, in particular, is a time for us to obtain plenary indulgences for our deceased brothers and sisters, so that the temporal punishment due to their sins may be remitted.[1] At the same time, knowing that, while the dead depend upon our prayers that they may soon join the company of the Church Triumphant, we ask them to pray for us whom they continue to love, desiring to help us in facing the many challenges in following faithfully Our Lord on the way of the Cross.
Today, we celebrate the memory of our brothers and sisters of the Church Triumphant, who have gone before us in death and whose souls are with the Lord in Heaven, awaiting the Resurrection of the Body on the Last Day. We remember both those who have been publicly recognized by the Church for their heroic sanctity of life and those countless other brothers and sisters who have followed Christ faithfully in life and have reached the final destiny of their earthly pilgrimage: the Heavenly Jerusalem. We celebrate the “great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,”[2] whom Saint John the Apostle saw in his vision of the Heavenly Jerusalem. We thank God for all the saints, for our fellowship with them in the Church, for their example which inspires us, and for their intercession on our behalf, so that one day we may join their heavenly company before the Throne of God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Considering all the saints, we are strongly reminded of the immeasurable and unceasing bounty of divine grace – of divine life flowing from the Sacred Heart of Jesus into our hearts – , calling us to holiness of life, the call given to each of us, without exception, at our baptism. Our Christian name reminds us of the call and mission which we received in the Sacrament of Baptism. In the words of Pope Saint John Paul II, “since Baptism is a true entry into the holiness of God through incorporation into Christ and the indwelling of His Spirit, it would be a contradiction to settle for a life of mediocrity, marked by a minimalist ethic and a shallow religiosity.”[3] Celebrating the memory of all the saints, we celebrate our own call to holiness of life, to daily conversion of life to Christ. We celebrate the call which we received at our baptism. Reflecting upon the richness of holiness, shining forth in the lives of the host of witnesses of Christ, we are filled with new enthusiasm and energy to meet what Pope Saint John Paul II called the “high standard of ordinary Christian living,”[4] striving, in Christ and with the help of His Spirit, to do God’s will in all things.
No matter what be our state in life – married, single, consecrated, or ordained – , and no matter what be the circumstances of our home, our work and our daily activities, we are called to Christ’s way of happiness, the way He taught us in the Sermon on the Mount and, in particular, in the Beatitudes.[5] We are called to recognize, in humility, our own spiritual poverty, and, at the same time, to trust completely in God’s all-merciful love which makes us eternally rich. We are called to embrace suffering, in order to be purified of our own sinfulness and to be strengthened to love God and neighbor purely and selflessly. We are called to reflect the holiness of God in our dispositions, words and actions before others, struggling daily to overcome sin and to do what is just and loving. Finally, we are called to accept willingly indifference, hostility, persecution, and even martyrdom because of our following of Christ, and to rejoice in sharing, with Christ, the Cross which leads to the Resurrection of Eternal Life.
After teaching His way of happiness, happiness already in this life and the fullness of happiness in the life to come, Christ related His teaching to the Ten Commandments, indicating that His way is the fulfillment of every letter of God’s Law.[6] He concluded with words which describe the program of our daily life: “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.”[7] Saint John the Apostle, reflecting the teachings of Christ, reminds us that he who hopes to be with God forever in the company of the saints “purifies himself as he is pure.”[8]
Our Lord’s words may seem unrealistic to us, but they are not. The saints are our witnesses that, with the help of God’s grace, we can strive daily for the holiness of life, which is a participation in the perfection of divine love. Devotion to the saints expresses faith that Christ through the Holy Spirit can accomplish His works of love in us, which we cannot accomplish by ourselves. Devotion to the saints leads us to overcome our doubt, hesitation, and fear before the realism of Christ’s words to us: “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”[9]
As Pope Benedict XVI taught us in his first Encyclical Letter, devotion to the saints, beginning with the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and Queen of All Saints, “shows an infallible intuition of how [pure] love is possible: it becomes so as a result of the most intimate union with God, through which the soul is totally pervaded by Him – a condition which enables those who have drunk from the fountain of God’s love to become in their turn a fountain from which ‘flow rivers of living water’ (Jn 7:38).”[10] Devotion to the saints uncovers for us the reality of Christian love “and whence it draws its origin and its constantly renewed power.”[11]
When we consider carefully the life of each saint, we discover how God’s grace was at work in every saint to overcome temptation and sin, that God’s will be done in all things. When we are tempted to think that we cannot do all that God asks of us, we should recall the lives of the saints and ask their help and protection. An essential help in growing in our relationship with Christ is the study of the lives of the saints. It is a spiritual practice which may have declined over the past decades, but which we need to revive.
Also observing today the First Saturday of Reparation, which the Infant Jesus and His Mother, Our Lady of Fatima, by their apparitions to the Venerable Lúcia dos Santos on December 10, 1925, and February 15, 1926, have asked us to do, we are reminded of how much our indifference, ingratitude, and sins wound His Most Sacred Heart and her Immaculate Heart. In both the apparitions of December 10, 1925, and of February 15, 1926, the substance of the First Saturdays Devotion is made clear: a profound realization of how sin offends Our Lord and His Immaculate Mother, a humble and contrite heart which strives to make reparation for sins committed and the offense they cause to Our Lord and His Immaculate Virgin Mother, and trust in the promise which accompanies the devotion, that is, Our Lady’s promise to assist at the hour of death, with all the graces necessary for salvation, those who observe the First Saturdays with true repentance and the desire to make reparation out of selfless and pure love of God.
The First Saturdays Devotion is not an isolated act but expresses a way of life, namely, daily conversion of heart to Christ’s Most Sacred Heart, under the maternal guidance and care of the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. May the First Saturdays Devotion be an integral part of our striving to live in the love of Christ, to be “perfect, as [our] heavenly Father is perfect.”[12] Please join me in the “Daily Prayer in preparation of the Centennial of the Apparition of the Infant Jesus and His Virgin Mother to the Venerable Servant of God Lúcia dos Santos,” which will celebrate this coming December 10th. If Our Lady is asking us to practice the First Saturdays Devotion, why are we not doing it?
In the company of all the saints, one in heart with the Immaculate Heart of Mary, we now approach the altar of Christ’s sacrifice. Our Lord Jesus Christ, seated in glory at the right hand of the Father, reaches down to us, as we approach, and He draws us to Himself, to His glorious-pierced Heart. Through our celebration of the Holy Mass, we who are still on earth are united with all the saints in Heaven in their worship of God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Holy Mass, as our late and most beloved Pope John Paul II reminded us so powerfully, “unites heaven and earth.”[13]
The saints, the Heavenly Choir who are present at every offering of the Holy Mass, will help us now to draw near to Christ, help us to be received into His all-loving Heart. Imitating the example of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Virgin Mother of God, and all the saints, and calling upon the help of their prayers, let us now unite our hearts to the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus. From His open Heart, the source of all holiness, we will receive the grace to seek daily the perfection of a holy life, to which we all are called.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Raymond Leo Cardinal BURKE
[1] Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1479.
[2] Rev 7, 9.
[3] “… si vera est Baptismus ingressio in Dei sanctitatem per insertionem in Christum ipsum necnon Spiritus eius per inhabitationem, quaedam repugnantia est contentum esse mediocri vita, quae ad normam transigitur ethnicae doctrinae minimum solum poscentis ac religionis superficiem tantum tangentis.” Ioannes Paulus PP. II, “Epistula Apostolica Novo millennio ineunte, ‘Magni Iubilaei Anni MM sub exitum,’ 6 Ianuarii 2001,” Acta Apostolicae Sedis 93 (2001) 288, n. 31. English translation: Pope John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Novo millennio ineunte, “At the Close of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000,” 6 January 2001, https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_letters/2001/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_20010106_novo-millennio-ineunte.html, no. 31.
[4] “… «superiorem modum» ordinariae vitae christianae.” Ibid., n. 31.
[5] Cf. Mt 5, 1-11.
[6] Cf. Mt 5, 17-20.
[7] Mt 5, 48.
[8] 1 Jn 3, 3.
[9] Mt 5, 48.
[10] “… certam perceptionem quo pacto talis [purus] amor fieri possit: longe intimam cum Deo per coniunctionem, per eius pervasionem — quod sinit ut is, qui Dei amoris ex fonte bibit, scaturigo ipse fiat ex quo « flumina … fluent aquae vivae » (Io 7, 38).” “Benedictus PP. XVI, Litterae encyclicae Deus caritas est, ‘De Christiano amore ,’ 25 Decembris 2005,” Acta Apostolicae Sedis 98 (2006) 252, n. 42. English translation: Pope Benedict XVI, Encylical Letter Deus caritas est, ‘On Christian Love,’ 25 December 2005,” https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20051225_deus-caritas-est.html, no. 42.
[11] “… undeque oriatur, unde usque renovatam vim depromat.” Ibid.
[12] Mt 5, 48.
[13] “Caelum enim coniungit et terram.” “Ioannes Paulus PP. II, Litterae Encyclicae Ecclesia de Eucharistia, ‘De Eucharistia eiusque necessitudine cum Ecclesia,’ 17 Aprilis 2003,” Acta Apostolicae Sedis 95 (2003) 438, n. 8. English translation: “Pope John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia, ‘On the Eucharist in Its Relationship to the Church,’ 17 April 2003,” https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_20030417_eccl-de-euch.html, no. 8.