All Saints' Day, therefore, is the feast of all those holy men, women and children who have gravitated towards the very source of holiness and are now enjoying the Beatific Vision, and are at this very moment in Heaven where they see God face to face and speak to him “…as one speaks to a friend” (NRSV, Exodus 33:11).  The names of many are known to us and are honoured on their own particular feast days during the year.  But there must be a far greater number who remain unknown and these we remember each year on the glittering feast of All Saints.

We must always keep in mind the fact that we are honouring Saints who are not just dead and gone – mere names in the Calendar – but real people who are alive with God now, separated from us only by the veil of invisibility which hangs between us and Heaven.

It was a true instinct of the Early Church to call the day on which the martyrs went to their death their “birthday”, the day on which they entered the glorious life of the Kingdom of God.  So the Feast of All Saints is not a day of regret that lives and people so fine have gone, but a day of rejoicing and jubilation in their triumph over evil and in the bliss which is now theirs for evermore.

And as we remember them, so do they remember us.  The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews in a famous passage compares this life and the fellowship of the Saints to a race in one of the great athletic stadia of the Roman Empire.  Down on the track are the runners, exerting themselves to the utmost, their eyes fixed on the finishing post which draws ever nearer as they go.  They are all intent on the race, but are conscious of the shouts of encouragement from the vast crowd of spectators who surround the arena on every side, rising row upon row like an immense encircling cloud.

So as we run our earthly race which brings us ever nearer to Christ, our Saviour and our Judge, the Saints are close at hand, lifting us with their prayers which they offer for us in the very Presence of God himself.