For All the Saints

This is the season of remembrance: Reformation Day, All Souls, and All Saints.  It is a time to give thanks for our saints and for those who have furthered the moral and spiritual arcs of history.  Each year, I ponder my saints, not only those in my family, but also the saints of peace, justice, civil rights, and human rights, who have shaped my life and political involvement.

When I think of my saints, some are personal.  George L. “Shorty” Collins, whose name described his 6 foot 7 inch height, the Baptist College Chaplain at San Jose State University, steered me through the process of becoming a “conscientious objector” to the Vietnam War.  Every Thursday, “Shorty” stood in silent vigil at the Bank of America in downtown San Jose.  He was a close friend of Howard Thurman, another of my saints, and as young persons both worked together to advance the peace mission of the Fellowship of Reconciliation.  

A few years back, I wrote my homage to the mystic saints of justice – the saints who shaped my life – “Mystics in Action: Twelve Saints for Today.”  In this collection, I honored the saints that shaped me, including Peace Pilgrim, Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Dag Hammarskjold, Simone Weil, and Martin Luther King.  These saints still live.  They are the good ancestors whose spirits inspire us today.  Their lives remind us that mysticism inspires social action.  As Howard Thurman notes, the mystic’s encounter with God inspires him to confront anything that stands in the way of person’s experiencing their full humanity.  The mystic is a prophetic healer.  The mystic challenges injustice, realizing that injustice harms the soul of the perpetrator as well as those who are harmed.  The mystic challenges the unjust while recognizing the divinity within them.

In this season of All Saints, consider those who are your saints.  How might knowing these saints inspire you to be a good ancestor, working for justice and peace in your time and place?  Let us celebrate the Saints and seek to be saints of justice ourselves.

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Bruce Epperly is a pastor, professor, and author of over sixty books, including The Prophet Amos Speaks to America: Ancient Wisdom for Contemporary Politics; Talking Politics with Jesus: A Process Perspective on the Sermon on the Mount; Prophetic Healing: Howard Thurman’s Contemplative Activism; Walking with Francis of Assisi: From Privilege to Activism; and Mystics in Action: Twelve Saints for Today, which includes a chapter on Dag Hammarskjold’s mystical activism.  He can be reached at drbruceepperly@gmail.com.