We Are All Members of the Communion of Saints According to New Testament, Happy Feast Day, Everyone!

Beato Angelica, predella della pala di fiesole 

"Too often theology has squeezed the inclusive meaning [of the word “saint”] dry, eliminating most of the baptized from sainthood in favor of a small group of elite office-holders or canonized saints. Even today many a theologian begins a discussion of the subject by acknowledging that even though the New Testament refers to the whole Christian community as saints, this will be set aside in order to consider paradigmatic figures, who then become in practice the real saints. But this strategy woefully shortchanges the breadth and depth of the gift of God who in gracious mercy forms, blesses, and sends forth the whole living community as a communion of saints. …In other words, the church is not divided into saints and non-saints. Vivified by grace, every woman, man, and child, in whatever circumstances and of whatever race, class ethnicity, sexual persuasion, or any other marker that divides human beings, participates in God’s holy life. The vocation to be friends of God shapes the life of everyone in the community."— Elizabeth A. Johnson