All Saints Day November 1, 2025
Fr. Alexander Albert St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville
Saints are exceptional people, aren’t they? Heroic leaders, bold preachers, prophetic speakers, miracle workers, lifelong witnesses to love, brave martyrs… our spiritual hall of fame is full of some amazing people whom even the world sometimes acknowledge as the best of the best. There are an estimated 11,000 official saints in the Catholic Church, all of whom we celebrate today.
But that’s not all we celebrate today. For all the ones we know of, there are far more we do not – some of whom are possibly even more amazing than the ones we know of but whose stories are hidden in the mists of time and history. Indeed, every soul in heaven could be called a saint and it is them whom we celebrate this day too.
One of the problems with our amazing list of amazing people, however, is the impression it creates among Catholics that becoming a saint is, well, rare. Not for me. Above my paygrade. Not something I should delude myself into trying to accomplish. And the statistics seem to bear this out. 11,000 saints sounds like a lot, but remember that that’s spread over 2000 years! That’s about 5 ½ per year. In recent years, that rate has actually picked up. Pope Francis’ average was canonizing about 70 saints a year. For context, about 62 million people die every year. So, using a rough estimate, the chance of someone becoming a canonized saint is almost literally 1 in a million.
Maybe that explains the first reading? In the book of Revelation, we see an angel stamping a special mark, a sacred seal on 144,000 people. That’s a lot of people, but in the context of the 8 billion alive today and all those who have lived throughout history, it’s really not much. Still, if that number is supposed to be the canonized saints, then… well, we’ve only got 11,000 spots filled up, leaving us 133,000 spots left – plenty of room for you and me!
Now, I bet no one expected quite so much math this morning! But there is a reason I’m saying all this. These numbers help bring to the surface the subconscious assumption held by most Catholics: that I could never be a saint. As with so many assumptions, however, that’s only half true. If you’re talking about a canonized saint, the guys and gals we put on the calendar, make prayer cards for, and talk about in religion class – you’re probably right. 1 in a million chance… and the vast majority of those are martyrs killed for their faith.
Those saints – the ones whose names and stories we know, whose faces are on stained glass windows – those saints are the ones represented by that number 144,000. Now, that’s not a literal number – it’s not like the world will end the instant we fill the last spot – but it’s symbolism is important. 12 tribes x 12 Apostles x 1000 as a symbol for “a lot” means there will be a lot of special saints from all over the world who get recognized by everybody.
But! If you stop reading there, you miss the most important part of this reading! “After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue.” A multitude which no one could count… people who are also in heaven, which means they are also saints! Just because we don’t know their names now doesn’t mean they are any less holy! And while becoming a well-known canonized saint on earth is a very rare club to join – one that is almost as much about lucky timing as it is about holiness – this great multitude is enormous. And we celebrate them today for two very important reasons.
One, because like any good Father, God loves it when you praise his children. Everything they accomplished was because of God’s goodness anyway, so praising them is praising God’s work in them.
Two, to wake up Catholics from this lie, this demonic deception of false humility that says “you could never be a saint!” Yes you can! Indeed, from all eternity, God wants nothing more than for you – yes you! – to be a saint! And what God wants is possible. It isn’t a matter of whether or not you’re the exceptional super-hero who can muscle his way into he exclusive hall of fame. It’s simply a matter of whether or not you show up and let God do it in you.
In that hall of fame, by the way, are former murderers, perverts, liars, thieves, addicts, and even former devil-worshippers. And those are just the ones we know about. There’s no telling how many more people like that simply slipped under the radar because, you know, 60 million people die every year and it’s kind of hard to track all of them.
You can be saint! You must believe that you can! Odds are, you won’t be canonized on earth and given a feast day – so what?! You think the saints in heaven, the men and women who see God face-to-face, who “see [God] as He is” care about statues and prayer cards and dates on the calendar? They are blessed and happy beyond our wildest imaginings because they are with God. Earthly, temporary things like that don’t even register as things to get happy about… except that those things are for us. God and the Church pick a few hall-of-famers to focus on not for their sake, but for ours. The 144,000 in scripture are witnesses to inspire the “multitude which no one could count.” They aren’t an exclusive club, they’re the proof of concept, the role models, the life-coaches, the cheerleaders, and the supportive family that are there to get you and me to the one thing that matters: God Himself.
Some people are exceptional… or rather, there are some people whose unique amazingness everyone gets to know about, but the truth is that all of us are uniquely amazing, destined for heaven. Whether that’s going out with a bang remembered in history or quietly struggling through life without quitting and slipping unnoticed into heavenly glory, the goal is the same. By God’s grace, you can be a saint. Indeed, that’s exactly what you’re meant to be. Don’t let the devil or the world convince you otherwise.