All Saints Day 2020

Today the church celebrates All Saints Day, also known as All Hallows Day.

Some of the other days in the year are dedicated to named saints, like St Andrew's Day that falls at the end of this month.

Today, 1 November, All Saints Day, is a day to give thanks for all the saints, not just the special ones.

I like the way Paul used the word 'saints' to mean something very different from unusually special people who end up with a halo in a stained glass window. Whenever St Paul wrote to a church he wrote "to the saints...", all the Christians in that place. His letter to the Romans begins,

"To all God's beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints...".

It's a calling most of we Christians don't live up to at all well. We "called-to-be-saints" are saints-in-the-making, ordinary fallible people who make mistakes. We're not perfected saints in heaven. Well you knew that didn't you?

At the head of this post is an image of an oil painting by Elizabeth Wang (1942 - 2016). It shows 'All Saints' centred around the person of Christ in glory. Those in the foreground look like lighted candles. I see saints as people who hold the light of Christ for others to see.

My eye is drawn to the kneeling figure, a rather lonely sight, yet not lonely because s/he is surrounded by a 'great cloud of witnesses', saints on earth and saints in heaven. We are never alone when we pray, even when we may feel alone.

I don't know if the artist intended the kneeling figure to represent any Christian or the church in prayer. I wonder if it could also speak of Christ himself, constantly praying for us? What do you think?

Image Credit: © Radiant light, Elizabeth Wang