Editor’s note: This homily was preached on the Solemnity of All Saints, 1 November 2026, at the Church of Our Lady of Sorrows, Jersey City, New Jersey.
St. Paul tells us that “God is glorious in His saints” (2 Th 1:10). Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI said on many occasions: “Art and the saints are the greatest apologetic for our faith.”
Today’s solemnity gives liturgical expression to those convictions.
I thought it might be useful to glean some insights on sanctity from none other than our newest Doctor of the Church, Saint John Henry Cardinal Newman. I do so taking serious account of the holy Cardinal’s own demurral: “I have nothing of a saint about me as everyone knows, and it is a severe (and salutary) mortification to be thought next door to one” (February 1850). He repeated that assessment on the very day he was made a cardinal (May 17, 1879), albeit with a bit more willingness to admit his accomplishments wrought under the power of divine grace:
In a long course of years I have made many mistakes. I have nothing of that high perfection which belongs to the writings of Saints, viz., that error cannot be found in them; but what I trust that I may claim all through what I have written, is this,—an honest intention, an absence of private ends, a temper of obedience, a willingness to be corrected, a dread of error, a desire to serve Holy Church, and, through Divine mercy, a fair measure of success.
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