Between the Angels and the Saints
Father Victor
Did you know that your destiny is to worship God in heaven? If it please God, you and I will be participants in a vast throng of worshipers, singing God’s praises in unceasing and infinite glory. Who will be with us? First of all, the angels. In the familiar words of the preface of the Eucharistic prayer:
Therefore, with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious Name; evermore praising thee, and saying: Holy, holy, holy . . .
Angels, I guess, are the choir directors of heaven! Who will also be with us? The saints, “all the company of heaven.” Saints are the heroes of the Bible, both Old and New Testament: Abraham, Sarah, Mary, John, Peter, Paul, and hundreds of others. Saints are also the heroes of the Christian centuries, people who lived and died as shining examples of Christian faith.
Saints come in a great variety. Some were fixed, like monks, in a single place, while others traveled great distances as missionaries so that all people would know the saving Gospel. Some were intellectual, while others were practical. Some started universities, others founded hospitals. Some sought to cure diseases, while others took rags to bind up wounds. Some died young under torture; some endured ridicule and contempt; some lived to very old ages. All gave themselves to Christ, and all sing his praise.
And you and I? We, who live here amongst the hymns of angels and the heroic stories of saints, we too are called to glory. Somewhere Thomas Merton says that every Christian should want to be a saint. Wouldn’t that be a great goal for, say, our Sunday school? That if you asked one of the students after church what it is that they want to do with their life, they would answer, “I want to be a saint!”
Being a saint is more important than being an engineer, a doctor, a lawyer, a carpenter, a bookkeeper, a teacher, or even a priest. Those are particular vocations, but sainthood can encompass them all. Sainthood means, simply, belonging to God, and making your God-identity the most important quality of your life.
Some 10 or 12 years ago, we celebrated (as we will this year) All Saints’ Day on a weekday evening. We had incense, chant, choir, acolytes. We also had baptisms. There were two small children, old enough to remember the event, who were being baptized: Sherry and Thomas Metzger. (Both of them are acolytes today.) Back then they were barely tall enough to stand on tiptoe at the font and look over the edge to see the water. As they did so, I scooped up the water and poured it on their heads three times. For each of them, when they then raised their dripping face, there was a smile so big you would think they had been kissed by an angel.
Between All Angels and All Saints, we stand on tiptoe as the water pours over us, we who also, please God, will sing with them in heaven..
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