SOLEMNIDAD DE TODOS LOS SANTOS 2026

Queridos hermanos y hermanas en Cristo: al celebrar hoy la solemnidad de Todos los Santos, quisiera quiero compartir con ustedes algunas preguntas: ¿Creen ustedes que están llamados a ser santos? ¿Piensan que es fácil o difícil llegar a serlo? Quizás algunos de ustedes piensen que la santidad es solamente para los sacerdotes, las religiosas o unas pocas personas extraordinarias.

Pero, queridos hermanos y hermanas, ¡la santidad no es solamente para unos pocos! ¡Todos estamos llamados a ser santos!

Por medio de nuestro Bautismo, Dios nos llama a vivir una vida santa. Ser santo no significa ser perfecto o nunca cometer errores. Significa amar a Dios, seguir a Jesús y tratar de cumplir su voluntad cada día, y amar a nuestros hermanos como a nosotros mismos.

Hoy celebramos a todos los santos que están en el cielo, incluyendo a innumerables hombres y mujeres santos cuyos nombres solamente Dios conoce. Ellos vivieron su fe por medio de la oración, el amor, el perdón, el servicio y la bondad hacia los demás.

Pero ¿cómo podemos llegar a ser santos? En el Evangelio de hoy, Jesús nos da la respuesta por medio de las Bienaventuranzas. Él nos enseña a ser humildes, misericordiosos, limpios de corazón, constructores de paz y personas que tienen hambre y sed de justicia.

Las Bienaventuranzas no son simplemente palabras que debemos recordar; son una manera de vivir. Nos hacemos santos cuando perdonamos a quien nos ofende, ayudamos a los necesitados, llevamos la paz a nuestras familias y elegimos hacer lo correcto, incluso cuando resulta difícil.

No necesitamos hacer cosas extraordinarias para llegar a ser santos. Podemos alcanzar la santidad realizando las cosas ordinarias de cada día con mucho amor. Un padre o una madre que ama a sus hijos, un esposo o una esposa fiel, un trabajador honesto o un vecino generoso pueden caminar por el camino de la santidad.

Hoy los invito a examinar sus vidas a la luz de las Bienaventuranzas. Pregúntense: ¿Soy misericordioso? ¿Perdono a los demás? ¿Soy instrumento de paz? ¿Reflejan mis palabras y mis acciones el amor de Jesús?

Y miren a su alrededor. Quizás haya santos entre los miembros de sus familias, sus amigos y sus vecinos: personas que sirven silenciosamente a los demás y viven su fe cada día.

Queridos hermanos y hermanas, Dios no nos pide que seamos perfectos; nos pide que sigamos caminando con Él y que crezcamos en el amor. Cuando caemos, podemos pedirle perdón, recibir su gracia y comenzar de nuevo.

Al celebrar la solemnidad de Todos los Santos, pidámosle a Dios que nos ayude a llegar a ser los santos que Él nos llama a ser. Que podamos amarlo con todo nuestro corazón, amar a nuestro prójimo como a nosotros mismos y, un día, compartir la alegría eterna del cielo.

Amén.

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Solemnity of All Saints 2026

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as we celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints, let me ask you a few questions: Do you believe that you are called to be a saint? Do you think it is easy or difficult to become one? Perhaps some of you think that holiness is only for priests, religious sisters, or a few extraordinary people.

But, dear brothers and sisters, holiness is not just for a few people. We are all called to be saints!

Through our Baptism, God calls each one of us to live a holy life. Being a saint does not mean being perfect or never making mistakes. It means loving God, following Jesus, and trying every day to do His will and loving our neighbors as ourselves.

Today, we celebrate all the saints in heaven, including the countless holy men and women whose names are known only to God. They lived their faith through prayer, love, forgiveness, service, and kindness.

But how can we become saints? In today's Gospel, Jesus gives us the answer through the Beatitudes. He teaches us to be humble, merciful, pure of heart, peacemakers, and people who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

The Beatitudes are not simply words to remember; they are a way of life. We become holy when we forgive someone who hurts us, help those in need, bring peace to our families, and choose what is right even when it is difficult.

We do not need to do extraordinary things to become saints. We can become holy through ordinary actions done with great love. A loving parent, a faithful spouse, an honest worker, or a generous neighbor can all walk the path of holiness.

Today, I invite you to examine your life according to the Beatitudes. Ask yourself: Am I merciful? Do I forgive others? Do I bring peace? Do my words and actions reflect the love of Jesus?

And look around you. Perhaps there are saints among your family members, friends, and neighbors—people who quietly serve others and live their faith every day.

Dear brothers and sisters, God is not asking us to be perfect; He is asking us to keep walking with Him and to grow in love. When we fall, we can ask for His forgiveness, receive His grace, and begin again.

As we celebrate All Saints Day, let us ask God to help us become the saints He calls us to be. May we love Him with all our hearts, love our neighbors as ourselves, and one day share in the eternal joy of heaven. Amen.

Solemnity of All Saints

My friends, today we would ordinarily celebrate the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time.  However, today is November 1st which is the Solemnity of All Saints.  A Solemnity always supersedes a Sunday in Ordinary Time.

So, today we celebrate all the holy men and women who have gone before us and are now in the presence of God, experiencing the fullness of life.

We celebrate Canonized Saints.  The exact number of canonized saints is unclear but the number is estimated to be in the thousands.

Today we also celebrate all those saints who are not canonized.  That number is so high it can't even be counted.

Now, some folks who take the Bible literally would disagree with that.  They say, according to our First Reading, that the number is only "One hundred and forty-four thousand.” 

Really?  Only 144,000 people from the beginning of time to the end of time will go to heaven?   That's depressing !

OK.  Here's the scoop:  When the Bible was written, numbers (besides being actual numbers) were also symbolic.  AND, the Book of Revelation was written in symbolic, apocalyptic language. 

So, to arrive at 144,000 symbolically:

• The number “twelve” symbolized “many” or “complete.”  The woman in the gospel who was hemorrhaging for 12 years meant she was hemorrhaging for many, many years.

• The number “Thousand” was a number that was so high it couldn’t even be counted.  Today we might use the word, “Gazillion.”  

• So, looking at our First Reading symbolically, we can see that the number of saints (144,000) is 12 x 12 x “thousand”  OR (many x many) times Gazillion.

Also, if we read down a few verses in our First Reading, it says:

"After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue.  They stood before the throne and the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands."

That's a whole lot of saints and today we celebrate all of them. 

My friends, I’m sure we know many saints who have gone before us as well as the saints who are still with us.

• The parents, who go without to provide for their children. 

• The single parent, who is both mother and father.

• The grandparents, who are caring for and raising their grandchildren.

• The daughter or son who is now the caregiver for the parent.

• The spouse who caring for his or her spouse.

So many more holy people who love God and humanity.  These living saints are the ones that Jesus is talking about in our Gospel today.  Blessed are they….. 

We recall how St. Paul often began his letters with:  “Greetings to all you saints in the Church.”

My friends, on this All Saints Day, I'd like to share with you something very important that Pope St. John Paul II said about Heaven and Hell and Purgatory.  I shared this previously but I believe it’s worth sharing again.  Pope St. John Paul said this during his Wednesday General Audience in August, 1999.

"Heaven is neither an abstraction nor a physical place in the clouds –  but rather a living, personal relationship with the Holy Trinity.  When the form of this world has passed away, those who have welcomed God into their lives and have sincerely opened themselves to his love, at least at the moment of death, will enjoy forever that fullness of communion with God – which is the goal of human life.

Hell – is the state of those who knowingly and purposely reject God.  Rather than a place – hell indicates the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God – and freely choose – to never be with him.  Because of Free Will –  man is called to respond to God freely.  Man can either accept – or reject God's love and forgiveness."  

My friends, this is our sainted pope, who lived in the same era we live in.  If there is someone you are worried about, take heart in Pope Saint John Paul's words. 

We don't jump in and out of Hell because of this or that.  Hell is a definite choice that is made to knowingly and purposely reject God from our life.  The question is:  "How many people knowingly and freely choose Hell ?"

Tomorrow, November 2nd is All Souls Day.  Pope Saint John Paul also talked about All Soul’s Day and Purgatory.  He explained that purgatory does not indicate a place but rather a "condition of existence", where Christ "removes the remnants of imperfection".

Saint John Paul said:  "As we have seen in the previous two catecheses, man has a definitive option for – or against – God.  He can choose to either to live with the Lord in eternal beatitude, or to remain far from his presence."

”But for those who find themselves in a condition of being open to God but still imperfectly the journey towards full beatitude requires a purification, which the faith of the Church illustrates in the doctrine of ‘Purgatory’ (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 1030-1032).

So, my friends, that's why we celebrate All Souls Day.  To remember and pray for those of our ancestors, descendants and friends who have died and are now being purified by the love of God. 

And, because those in Purgatory are members of the Communion of Saints along with us and those already in Heaven, we ask them to pray for us, as we continue our journey in life…

When Jesus first began his public ministry after spending 40 days in the desert, his very first words were, “I have come to proclaim Good News.”

In the gospel reading for All Souls Day, Jesus said:

"I will not reject anyone who comes to me.  “This is the will of my Father:  That everyone who believes in me may have eternal life."