Echoes from the Bell Tower

“On the feasts of saints, and indeed on all solemn festivals, the Sunday order of celebration is followed.”
Rule of Saint Benedict 14.1

Chapter 14 is one of the shortest chapters in Saint Benedict’s Rule for monks. It’s about celebrating the monastic liturgy of vigils, but I think the first of the two verses that make up the entirety of this chapter is most telling. Feasts of saints are important to Benedict, to be honored with something like the dignity of a Sunday, the day of the Lord’s resurrection.

This makes sense to me given the double sense of the word “saint.” We think of the saints as those who’ve gone to heaven, and as Catholics understand it, those recognized by Church authority as having demonstrated “heroic virtue” in their lives and so are examples of holiness to the rest of us. This is essentially what the role of “canonized” saints is for Catholics – it’s not about “glorifying” human beings, but about having virtuous human examples to imitate as we strive to live lives of virtue and faith.

But a second, and perhaps more important sense to the term “saint” is the one Saint Paul had in mind when he refers to the “holy ones” (which is what saint literally means), as all who have been baptized into Christ – those in heaven and those still “on the way.” There is no holiness but God’s, and there is no virtue aside from what the Spirit of Christ inspires us to. But all the baptized are holy, “saints” already, even if while still “on the way” we must strive to collaborate with grace to actualize our sanctity.

St. Peter writes, “it is written, ‘Be holy, says God, because I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:16) – he refers to the Book of Leviticus (e.g. Lev 11:44-45). In a way, then, St. Benedict’s Rule is a handbook for how to actualize one’s holiness; how to be a saint not merely in theory, but in fact! Our life as Benedictines is a way for us to strive to be holy by advancing in this way of life and in faith, never serving from [Christ’s] instructions but faithfully observing his teaching in the monastery until death … that we may deserve also to share in his Kingdom. (RB Prol 49-50)

As we celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints (Nov. 1), let us remember the one holiness to which all are called, in context of our individual vocations, a “way of life and faith” that, if we desire it to, can provide us a share in Christ’s eternal Kingdom. May the prayers of all the saints aid us in our efforts to be holy as God is holy!