On the Feast of All Saints the teaching for Vatican II, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium), deserves notice: “It has pleased God to make men and women holy and to save them, not as individuals without any bond between them, but rather as a people who might acknowledge him in truth and serve him in holiness.” We ordinarily think of being a saint, of becoming holy, as a personal quality. My prayer and my following of the commandments makes me holy. The reality is that holiness happens when we live and act “as a people.” Others model sanctity for me. Together we support each other and challenge each other in living a godly life and that is what makes for saints.
