The feast of all saints (Nov. 1): shining God's light in ordinary life

October 21, 11:01 AMCharlotte Episcopal ExaminerAngela Boatright-Spencer

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Forgive me if you've already heard this story: a child was asked to define a "saint." Glancing around at the stained glass windows lining the church walls, the child spoke right up. "A saint," she said, "is someone who lets the light shine through."

Very true.  Saints are people whose faith shines through them, enabling them to perform extraordinary feats.  But it also is the name given to regular folks who belonged to the church in its earliest days, as in "contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers" in Romans 12:13.

Personally, I like this way of looking at sainthood better, because it reminds us that God's all-powerful grace is extended to all of us, not just a few special souls.  The person who smiles at us just because we are there -- and maybe brightens an otherwise lackluster day -- has let light shine through onto us. Or the one who lets us go ahead in the line at the grocery store because we only have a few items, or who gives us the dollar or two we need if we run short at the counter, or who holds the elevator for us when we're running to catch it -- these are all ordinary actions that show us that someone sees us, someone cares.  The moments when we feel ourselves cared for, are the moments when the light of God's love is shining on us.  One of my personal saints was Gladys Paxton, my second grade teacher back in the dinosaur days.  She saw my value as a person and quietly gave me opportunities to develop the talents I had, always encouraging me to do more, do better.  We can all do great things for each other when we offer our hearts to God.  The key is in our willingness to let the light of God shine through us...which means we have to clear away some of the stuff that might be blocking it.

Self-righteousness is one of the strongest blockers of heavenly light.  This may sound harsh, but the minute we begin to focus on how well we are doing in our spiritual life is the very minute that we block the light from shining through.  Why? We're concentrating on our own goodness more than God's -- and, as Jesus says in Mark 10: 18, "no one is good but God alone."  Job made the error of trusting in his own righteousness a bit more than on God's mercy, and he inherited a world of trouble for it.  ("He knows the way that I take," Job says of God, "when he has tested me, I shall come out like gold." Job 23:10)  The spiritual life is about balance -- balancing our sense of ourselves as magnificent beings made in the image of an all-powerful, all-loving, abundant God, and as creatures inherently limited in capacities, understanding and power in comparison to our Creator.

How do we let the light shine through?

• By reminding ourselves, constantly, that all that we have and all that we are has been given to us by God, and it is the purpose of our lives to devote all of our being into the  service of doing God's will on earth as it is in heaven. 
• By asking ourselves, constantly, whether we are acting out of compassion for another, or out of a desire to control or judge another or to make ourselves look good. Jesus was aware of how good it feels to have our good works acknowledged -- that's only human-- so he cautioned us to work in secret, and our Father, who sees in secret, will give us a just reward (Mt. 6:1-4).

The old hymn, "I sing a song of the saints of God," (#293, Hymnal 1982) says it so well:

They lived not only in ages past, there are hundreds of thousands still, the world is bright with the joyous saints who love to do Jesus' will.  You can meet them in school, or in lanes, or at sea, in church, or in trains, or in shops, or at tea, for the saints of God are just folk like me, and I mean to be one too."

See also: Radiating Christ, Finding a spiritual balance