YOU, ME, AND OTHER SAINTS

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THE PROBLEM WITH PERFECTION

Yesterday the church celebrated the Solemnity of All Saints.

So I've been thinking about the terrible hoax that continues to be perpetrated on Christian believers by various writers over and over throughout the centuries. I'm referring to the idea that a "saint" is someone who is "perfect." Almost from the beginning certain biographers of saints felt compelled to show that their particular saint had no faults, no shortcomings and was free of all imperfections.

This post is mostly copied from one I wrote in 2014, but I'm using it as a starting point today because it bears repeating.

I'm sure that there must be folks around today who believe that the Church is watering down her definition of "saint" by canonizing people such as John XXIII and John Paul II whom we knew, and whose imperfections and weaknesses were well known. But in recent years our Pope has once again restated the ancient idea that every one of us is called to be holy (in Latin and the Romance languages the word for "holy" is the same word as "saint"). Pope Francis tells us, “saints are men and women who have joy in their hearts and spread it to others. Never hating, but always serving the other, is the greatest need.” He reminds us further, that “to be a saint is not a privilege of a few...All of us are called to walk in the way of sanctity.”

This "universal call to holiness" is not a call to be faultless, flawless and untainted by sin -- that is clearly not possible for anyone but God alone -- but it's there nevertheless. So we have to figure out how to be saints despite our imperfections.

TWELVE IMPERFECT PEOPLE

Did you ever look closely at the twelve people that Jesus chose as the ones who would spread his word to the world? The gospel passage for the feast of Simon and Jude listed them by name, and the roll call is pretty discouraging. Matthew was a tax-collector for the Romans, a trade despised by his fellow Jews. Simon the Zealot was a member of a group who hated the Romans and continually plotted their violent expulsion from Israel; I wonder what he and Matthew talked about over supper. Then there were James and John, nicknamed Boanerges or Sons of Thunder - (in other words, they were vociferous -- maybe even Loudmouths). There was Thomas who wouldn't take his brothers' word for anything but needed to see it wth his own eyes, and the blustery Peter who bragged that he would follow Jesus to death but then denied even knowing him. Judas Iscariot, whatever his motives, wound up handing Jesus over to the Sanhedrin.

STILL MORE IMPERFECT PEOPLE: US

We just finished a book in the refectory (we have table reading at supper) entitled "River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey," by Sister Helen Prejean. You may know her as the author of "Dead Man Walking," and as a champion of the movement to abolish the death penalty. "River of Fire" tells her story from childhood up to the time when she was introduced to a man awaiting execution. What happened after that is recounted in "Dead Man Walking." "River of Fire" is worth reading for a variety of reasons, especially for its honest look at what happened to religious life at the time of the upheavals of Vatican II. I'm mentioning it here because it's a good example of someone becoming "holy" simply by trying to follow God's lead, by allowing herself to be carried along on the "river" of God's plan. 

Our next table reading book is "A Saint of Our Own: How the Quest for a Holy Hero Helped Catholics Become American." From the Table of Contents, it seems that the book will be about people who have been officially canonized as saints. I'm looking forward to listening to it. 

I pray that I can continue to be inspired by all the saints in my life, especially the hidden, secret, unsung saints who struggle faithfully every day to follow the Lord's lead, and to be carried through their life, according to God's will, on the river of fire.