It is a beautiful thing that All Saints Day offers us an opportunity to recall those who have died. In a culture deeply ambivalent about death, it is good, it is holy, to set aside time beyond funeral rituals to remember and give thanks for those who have gone before us and paved numerous ways for us.
But too often, the import of Christian faith is pitched toward the future, thrown beyond the grave, the point of faith being made mostly relevant after we die.
Instead, though, Jesus was eminently practical and present in the moment. “Today,” he said – not tomorrow, not after you die, but today – “salvation has come to you.”
So perhaps All Saints Day can be an opportunity not just to give thanks for those who are no longer with us, but to give thanks for those who are still with us – and, for that matter, to give thanks for ourselves, precisely as saints!
This message is excerpted from “Saints & Sinners” by Anna Madsen in the November 2020 Gather magazine. Today is All Saints Day.
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