Become a Saint

Homily for Sunday, November2, 2025
All Saints’ Day
Ephesians 1:11-23

Sixty years ago almost to the day, on a bright November morning in 1965, Lt. Col. Hal Moore and approximately 400 of his men from the U.S.  Army’s 1^st Battalion 7^thCavalry were dropped by helicopter into the Ia Drang Valley to establish a foothold in the central highlands of South Vietnam.  Less than an hour after they were on the ground, shots rang out, and they discovered that they were surrounded by a force of 2,000 North Vietnamese.  Miraculously, after three days and two nights, in one of the fiercest battles of the war, all 400 of Moore’s men, the living, the wounded and the dead, were evacuated, with Moore himself being the last to climb into a helicopter.  In 2017, on the occasion of Moore’s death (at the age of 94), NPR replayed an interview of Moore from 1992.  

Terry Gross: General (Moore retired as a General), when bombs are falling and there’s artillery fire all around and you’re under attack… how do you think clearly?  I mean, this is a time when you are most required to think clearly but when it must be most difficult to do so.

General Moore: I really have never had any problem thinking clearly in a… critical situation...  In the smoke and dust… the men screaming and yelling… wounded men screaming for medics…  I think I go into a sort of zone and blank out all the horrible brutality that is going on around me, being aware of it nonetheless but realizing that I was the commander…  I am responsible for preserving as many…lives as I can…

Terry Gross: I guess you can’t get too emotional about your men dying in the middle of a fight.

General Moore: No, you cannot.  And furthermore,you cannot impart, by your very manner or your voice on the radio, any possible sign or word or tone of voice that would indicate to any listener or to any of your men looking at you that you were rattled. You had to look calm and be calm. And it’s something you can’t put on.

The General went on to say that, yes, afterwards it hit him, and that never a day goes by that he doesn’t think about that battle and the men he lost.  But in the moment, in the heat of battle, “you cannot impart,” he said, “by your very manner or your voice… any possible sign…that would indicate to… your men… that you were rattled.  You had to look calm and be calm.  And it’s something you can’t put on.”

Today we celebrate All Saints’ Day.  If in the Ia Drang Valley Lt. Col. Moore and his men were surrounded by enemies who wished them to die, All Saints’ Day reminds us that whenever we gather for Eucharist, we are surrounded by the saints who wish for us to live.  And if in the Ia Drang Valley Lt. Col.Moore’s calm and confidence radiated outward from him and inspired his men, All Saints reminds us that the saints who surround us in their very persons radiate inward to us the riches, the hope and the power that come from being a disciple of Jesus Christ.

In his letter to the Ephesians (from which we heard this morning) the author prays that we may experience these riches, this hope and this power.  “I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,” he writes:

…may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe.

We who follow Jesus stand in need of this hope and these riches and this power because, like Lt. Col. Moore and his men in the Ia Drang Valley, we have an enemy who wishes us to die.  Our Baptismal rite names that enemy:

·       “Do you renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God?” we ask Baptismal candidates.  “I renounce them,” the candidate says.

·       “Do you renounce the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God?” we ask. “I renounce them,” the candidate says.

·       “Do you renounce all sinful desires that draw you from the love of God?”  “I renounce them.”

When (to quote the rite) a candidate turns to Jesus Christ and accepts him as their Savior, when a candidate puts their whole trust in his grace and love, and when they promise to follow and obey him as their Lord, they enter into this company of saints whom today we celebrate, both the living and those who have gone before.  And with this company we train and practice doing things like (as we will say shortly): continuing in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in the prayers; persevering in resisting evil, and, whenever we fall into sin, repenting and returning to the Lord; proclaiming by word and example the Good news of God in Christ; and seeking and serving Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors as ourselves.  We train and practice these things so that,bit by bit, gradually over time, we come to radiate out from us – from our very selves, in a way that we can’t “put on” – the joy, the hope, the calm,the confidence… the holiness of the saints.  We come to radiate out from our very beings something of the life of Jesus Christ.  

It may seem daunting to persevere in resisting “the spiritual forces of wickedness” that “corrupt and destroy the creatures of God.”   It may seem daunting, too, to know that we are called to holiness and to manifest in our own lives something of the life of Jesus.  Today’s Feast reminds us that we do not undertake this mission alone. We are surrounded by a company who support us and wish for us to live;and we have a leader who himself has faced down death and who (says Ephesians)has already “put all things under his feet.”  And we can take courage, too, in the words of Pope Francis, with which I will leave us:

Do not be afraid of holiness.  It will take away none of your energy,vitality or joy.  On the contrary, you will become what the Father had in mind when he created you, and you will be faithful to your deepest self… Do not be afraid to set your sights higher, to allow yourself to be loved and liberated by God. Do not be afraid to let yourself be guided by the Holy Spirit.  Holiness does not make you less human… When all is said and done, ‘the only great tragedy in life, is not to become a saint.’ – (Gaudete et exsultate, 30, 32)