This week we celebrate and remember
a motley crew in All Saints and All Souls many of whom were both revered and/or
reviled in their lifetime. The legacy
celebrated is one of human holiness, not of the perfect, but of those who
strove and upon whom we call to help us do the same.
We
read on All Saints from the 1 John 3:2a “Beloved, we are God’s children now;
what we shall be as not yet been revealed.”
What would happen if we treated one
another as saints in progress, seeing the potential and possibility in one
another? If we made space for gray in a
time and place that fosters polarity? Or
if we responded with compassion and understanding in the face of resistance and
hurt? Coming from this place could we recognize that
we each are working for a common goal on this side of heaven?
Perhaps in these feasts we find not
only celebration and remembrance, but an invitation to the best which lies in
each of us as God’s children now in our time and place as we together strive
forward with compassion and grace in our human holiness.
Sr. Kimberly Porter, OSB
