Reflection on the Sunday of All Saints

Most of the Church year is made up of time “after Pentecost,” and this time is filled with the feasts of the saints. Today, we begin this time after Pentecost by celebrating all the saints, those known and unknown, from the beginning to the end of time. Christ died to send the Spirit; the Spirit came to make Christ present in the saints. The wonderful tapestry of Christian sanctity is unfurled over the course of the Church year, but today we celebrate the saints as one, reminding us that this is the end and goal of the Paschal season: the saints are, in a way, the crown of the year. The season of sanctity that we mark through summer’s verdure and autumn’s fruitfulness is a celebration of the priceless bounty of souls that Christ won through his Passion and purchased with his Blood.