Paradise, dome fresco of Baptistery of Padua, c. 1378, Giusto de' Menabuoi
Who do we think of as saints? Maybe someone who lived a long time ago, like Augustine or Athanasius. Maybe someone who founded a religious order, like Benedict or Francis. Maybe someone who lived a life of intense prayer, like Catherine of Sienna or Teresa of Avila. Maybe someone who did amazing, even heroic things like Mother Teresa or John Paul II or Maximilian Kolbe. In short, when we hear the word “saint,” we think of all sorts of people – everyone, that is, but ourselves.
Now, to be sure, we are not saints – not as we are currently. To be a saint means to be in heaven, to be experiencing the glorious beatific vision, that is, beholding God face to face. But while you and I are not saints yet – we are called to be saints, indeed, created by God for that singular purpose alone.
Our readings today tell us this very clearly. In the first reading, St. John is alone on the island of Patmos, toward the end of his life, and he is caught up in the visions that make up the book of Revelation. In this vision, he sees around the throne of God “a great multitude from every nation, race, people, and tongue”. This throng of people is from every background imaginable, and yet despite their outward differences, they are united in one thing: “These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress, and have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb.”
If we think that’s intended to describe someone other than you and me, we’re mistaken. Yes, it means the martyrs and the bishops and the nuns, all those holy men and women that we first think of when we hear the word “saint”. But it’s not them alone. You and I, by virtue of our baptism, also have a share in the death of Christ – our souls have been washed in his blood to remove our sinfulness. By that fact, so too are we called to share in his Resurrection, to take, by the grace of God, our place in the Communion of Saints.
But how do we get there? As Catholics, we believe that becoming a saint is a lifelong process – as long as we are alive, we have the opportunity both to lose the grace of God through sin but also then to turn away from sin, repent, confess, and receive that grace of God again. We work out our salvation, as St. Paul says, “with fear and trembling,” recognizing that this work we are engaged in – this identity that we are striving to achieve, of being a saint – is the most important, indeed the only truly important thing that matters. This life on earth must be for us all about getting to heaven.
The beautiful thing is that the saints themselves show us that there’s not one single path to holiness. The Church traditionally identifies three vocations, three ways of life by which God calls us to holiness. The most common is in the exclusive bond of marriage, by which a man and a woman through their love express to each other the love God has for the other, becoming the foundation by which they share the work of God of bringing new life into the world, ultimately loving each other to heaven. Priesthood too is a vocation of love – specifically, the love of Christ, by which the priest seeks to show the love of God to all whom he encounters. Finally, the consecrated or religious life is a vocation by which God seeks to form a particular bond with a man or woman in order to dedicate them to a particular work of making the world a holier place, usually through prayer or service. They live out in a special way that blueprint for sainthood which Jesus gives us in the Gospel today, the Beatitudes.
These vocations are not just nice ideas or lofty but unrealistic goals. They are real callings, real movements within the hearts of people today. This week the Church in the US celebrates National Vocations Week, in which we pray for those who have committed themselves to a particular vocation and for those who are still discerning their vocation. I would especially encourage the young people today, particularly our college students, to take some time this week to reflect upon your vocation. Visit a church, take a walk, say a rosary – spend some time listening to whether what you think you want to do with your life is what God wants you to do. We need holy marriages, holy priests, and holy religious and consecrated because it’s through those vocations that God sanctifies the world and through which we strive for our ultimate, shared goal of being a saint.
Today we celebrate all of our brothers and sisters who have attained that goal. We ask for their spiritual assistance and intercession, and we look to them as models and inspirations to holiness. But we should also see in them a promise of what we ourselves can be, indeed are called to be, if we endure this earthly time of trial, clinging to the grace we have in Christ. The saints were not superheroes – but merely men and women who cooperated fully with the will of God, and now rejoice with him for eternity. As one of the saints said, “Why can we not be so holy?”
So, the next time you think of the saints in heaven, imagine yourself as one of them – and then live here on earth in such a way that you can make that a reality.
No comments:
Post a Comment