VATICAN CITY, NOV. 2, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Sanctity is the goal of a Christian’s life, and one gets a glimpse of holiness at every Mass, says Benedict XVI.
On Monday, the Solemnity of All Saints, the Pope reflected on sanctity before praying the Angelus with those gathered in St. Peter’s Square.
The Solemnity of All Saints, he began, «invites us to raise our gaze to heaven and to meditate on the fullness of divine life that awaits us.»
«Sanctity, to imprint Christ in oneself, is the objective of a Christian’s life,» the Holy Father affirmed. «And we experience in advance the gift of the beauty of sanctity every time we take part in the Eucharistic liturgy, in communion with the ‘immense multitude’ of the blessed, who in heaven eternally acclaim the salvation of God and of the Lamb.»
Benedict XVI also reflected on today’s feast day, the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls), which he said reminds us «that Christian death is part of the journey of assimilation to God, which will disappear when God is everything in all.»
«Although separation from earthly affection is certainly painful,» he continued, «we must not be afraid of it, because when it is accompanied by the prayer of suffrage of the Church, it cannot break the profound bonds that unite us to Christ.»
Quoting his encyclical «Spe Salvi,» the Pontiff also spoke of eternity, which he said is not «‘an unending succession of days in the calendar, but something more like the supreme moment of satisfaction, in which totality embraces us and we embrace [the] totality’ of being, of truth, of love.»
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