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Becoming a saint
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November 1 is observed as the Feast of All Saints in the Christian Church. Like many people, I grew up with the belief that saints were really good people, “other worldly” in their devotion to God. The trouble with this partial understanding of a saint is that we can make the mistake that God evaluates us on our performance to determine who should get the reward of Heaven and everlasting life. We should do good, but as a result of God’s grace, forgiveness and unconditional love, not as some sort of test of our worthiness.
Our actions are important. But we are imperfect. We make mistakes. We miss the mark. Therefore, our faith in God and acceptance of God’s redemption is essential. Some Christian teachers go to extremes to drive this point home, reminding us over and over again that our works have nothing to do with salvation and that it is all grace (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Truly by ourselves we are incapable of redemption. Our salvation is indeed a free gift – thanks to Jesus Christ, the fully human and fully divine savior of the world. Christ does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Through his death and resurrection he invites us on the Way to eternal life and union with God.
If you study the lives of saints an interesting pattern emerges. They seem to rejoice over the amazing goodness and unconditional love of God. And they recognize their continued shortcomings. They don’t deny or run from them; instead they embrace them and ask God to transform them. In their actions they let God work this transformation. Perhaps this is why so many of them dedicated their lives to helping the poor, the sick, and the less fortunate. They denied the self-seeking pleasures that are such an enticement to us. They surrendered their lives to one of service. They gave glory to God. Many suffered greatly and many gave their lives. Some agonized over times when they felt abandoned by God. But they persevered to discover that God was taking them deeper on their transformational journey – working secretly in their lives during their “dark night of the soul” (see the mystic Saint John of the Cross).
What saints discover is that life is not about them – they are about life! They embrace the way Jesus Christ taught, that of dying to self in order to rise to real life.
Becoming a saint may appear impossible to us. I cannot imagine anyone considering me to be one. When I study the lives of two of my favorite saints, Francis of Assisi and Therese of Lisieux, I am amazed at their ability to rejoice in lives of devotion, poverty and imperfection. Their joy seems to come at a great price of personal suffering. My great challenge is my desire for comfort. It is a trap that easily ensnares me.
The path to sainthood is challenging. But it is not something you achieve. It is the humble realization that without God you are incomplete. And with God working in, through and with you life has real purpose. It is better to give than to receive. A giving spirit produces its own reward of joyful identification with God’s children. Jesus emphasizes over and over again in the Gospels that we must accept our reality and take responsibility for it (John 8:31-32; Luke9:23-26). Everyday that we can embrace this reality furthers our transformation. It is in this daily living that we “become a saint”.
The above photo by Bailoo
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