Our Sermons
Sunday 2 November 2025
AllSaints Day
I don’t know how many of you have seen the film Coco. It’s a wonderful, animated movie that tells the story of Miguel, a young boy who, on the Day of the Dead (El Día de los Muertos), steals a guitar from the tomb of a famous Mexican musician and suddenly finds himself in the Land of the Dead. There, he meets his family, who help him return to the world of the living. It’s not just a brilliant film to watch with your children, but also a beautiful interpretation of life beyond death.
My brother, who lived for several years in Oaxaca, told me that the tradition of orange flower petals comes from that very region of Mexico. The film’s director draws on that tradition and brings it to life with vibrant colours and Mexican music. I found the idea of a bridge made of orange petals, linking the world of the living and the dead and allowing the dead to visit their loved ones once a year, deeply moving. And the photos of loved ones act as passports, enabling the dead to cross the bridge and reunite with their family. Truly beautiful and touching! After all, those photos represent bonds of affection and love that are eternal.
‘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 before the Lamb,
wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.’
We know very little about what happens after death. Believing in eternal life and resurrection doesn’t mean we have special knowledge that other religions don’t. It’s about trusting that God’s love is stronger than death, which seems to be the final end of human life.
In our everyday experience, we understand life and death – the joy of a birth and the pain of losing someone we love. But life after death is beyond what we can know or experience because it’s outside space and time. We live within space and time, which is wonderful but also very limiting. We simply cannot know what lies beyond.
That’s why we use imagination – through stories, metaphors, books, films and poetry – to picture what might be there. Dante’s Divine Comedy and the film Coco are great examples of this creative imagining. But the truth is, we don’t know what life after death will be like.
This is where faith matters. Faith helps us see death not as the end of everything, but as the beginning of something new and different – an experience that will change us completely. We don’t know what it will be like, but we trust it is for those who remain faithful to God’s love.
All Saints’ Day is a beautiful celebration! It’s a chance to reflect together on holiness and what it really means to be a saint. Holiness and sanctity are closely linked. To understand sainthood, we need to explore what holiness means—not as a dry theological concept, but as something that touches our daily lives, our humanity, with its strengths and weaknesses, needs and desires.
For centuries, many religions saw holiness as purity and separation from the world. Being holy meant being set apart, often creating a sense of superiority and even hostility towards others. The Old Testament book of Leviticus is full of rules about purity—what foods to eat, how to cleanse after childbirth, and so on. That was the old mindset. Sadly, this idea of separation still fuels extremism today—racism, xenophobia, even violent conflicts like the one between Gaza and Israel. These divisions breed isolation, frustration and hatred.
That’s why we need to rediscover holiness as a force for unity and communion. Holiness is about relationship with God. It’s dynamic, not static. We are holy because God draws us close, sharing His beauty, wisdom and goodness. In this way, anyone can be a saint! All Saints’ Day calls us to rethink holiness—not as escape from the world, but as living in communion with God and others. Holiness is found in the world, not outside it. Saints like Mother Teresa and John Henry Newman understood this. They weren’t superheroes—they simply connected their humanity, with all its limits and gifts, to God. They became ambassadors of communion.
What does holiness look like? Jesus shows us: peacemakers, the humble yet courageous, the compassionate and selfless. These are God’s friends—His family. That’s the Communion of Saints, and we belong to it because we share God’s longing for peace and love.
Today, as we celebrate All Saints’ Day, think of your loved ones who have died. They are united with us more than ever. Be grateful for how God made them ambassadors of communion in your life. And when we pray the Eucharist—“We offer this Bread and Wine”—remember that this is our moment of communion with the saints. The fruit of God’s friendship is love, joy and mutual support.
Holiness often appears in small, humble acts of love. Like the story of an 85-year-old woman asked what keeps her going:
“Well,” she said, “it’s important to keep using your gifts and to serve others. That’s what keeps us alive.”
When asked what she does for a living, she replied:
“I look after an old lady in my neighbourhood.”
Let’s be thankful for these everyday stories of holiness. Let’s pray for more of them—especially now, in a world torn by violence and war. On this All Saints’ Day, let’s show the world that holiness means communion, peace and love.