Surrounded by the Saints | All Saints Day

By: Rev. Mr. Timothy Walsh
Seminarian, Archdiocese of Boston

One of the best feelings is to walk into a room and have everyone applaud you. It feels like an affirmation of all the hard work and effort that brought you to that moment.

When I was a young boy, I used to dream of winning the World Series in my backyard. I would play pretend baseball, imagining it was the bottom of the ninth inning. I would hit a home run, and the crowd would go wild. Even though the cheering was only in my imagination, the feeling of having a crowd celebrate with me seemed real.

Whenever we come to Mass, however, we are surrounded by a crowd whose applause is very real. It is the choir of all the angels and saints. They are interceding for us before God Himself. The Apostles, the martyrs, holy bishops and priests, religious sisters and brothers, and countless holy men and women are gathered in heaven. They are not distant from us. They are members of the same Church, and they want to help lift our hearts toward God.

We need to become more aware of this heavenly crowd. The Church Triumphant is made up of an enormous number of souls. The saints we know by name may number in the thousands, but they are only those whom the Church has officially recognized. Heaven is filled with countless other saints who are praying for us right now. We may never know their names until we reach heaven ourselves.

When we think of a crowd cheering, we rarely think about each individual person. Instead, we hear all their voices coming together as one. That shared voice makes a beautiful sound. So it is in heaven. There is no greater praise than the praise offered to God by the angels and saints. When we gather for Mass, we are surrounded by this heavenly praise. We only need to recognize it to realize that we are already part of something much greater than ourselves.

When we leave Mass, we should carry that same praise with us. Having joined the angels and saints in worshipping God, let us bring that praise into the world. May our voices join theirs, until the day when we too are gathered among the saints in heaven and behold God face to face.