Perhaps it was because I had just spent almost two hours browsing the wonderful bookstore that had books about saints aplenty, but while kneeling before my Lord at the Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament, my mind was preoccupied with the idea of sainthood.
We are all called to be saints. Sainthood isn't just for the devout monks and nuns who serve in monasteries and convents, but for all God's children. Contemplation this past weekend before the Eucharist, compounded with an impromptu reading a few days later of Saints Behaving Badly, while waiting in a Barnes and Noble to pick up a friend from the airport, has truly gotten me thinking about what Sainthood means, and looks like.
Being a saint isn't about "never sinning". Being a saint is about the total consecration of your life to the service of God's will. This can happen early in life, or late in life. Regardless, we all are called to do so with zeal, passion, and trust. Being a saint is about living "heroically", by that, I mean being filled with "heroic virtue."
From the saints, we can learn to never believe the lie that we are irreconcilable to God because of our sins. God's forgiveness and mercy should not be underestimated. No sin is too great. Nothing you can do as a human can change God's unconditional and passionate love for you. So many Saints did things that were unimaginably terrible, but God blessed them with repentance, and their lives were transformed because of it. (For examples, I suggest reading Saints Behaving Badly.)
Another important thing to realize is that sainthood isn't something that we can achieve through our own virtue, but by the virtues that are given to us by God. I certainly do not possess the capability or capacity to be a saint on my own. Through prayer and supplication to God, one asks God to mold them, and teach them to be saints.
I think it is easy to think that being a saint is unattainable because one could never justify looking at their own life at any given point and saying "Wow, I'm so great, I must be a saint or something!" I know I certainly don't. But I think it's a process, with an end that is not in this world. And I would certainly think it sad not to strive something just because its result cannot be seen.
I'm not saying sainthood is easy, but that we are all called to it. We should should strive to be saints daily, free from the inhibition of doubt.
My God and My All, make me a saint. -St. Alphonsus
2 comments:
There's no St. Allison yet-- guess you'll have to be the first ;)
Seriously though, this is a great post. Very true. Favorite line: "God's forgiveness and mercy should not be underestimated. No sin is too great." I like this idea-- not the abuse of it, of course, but its recognition so that we have some kind of motivation to continue to strive to be saints.
Thank you for again sharing great insight!
So...pretty cool you posted this now. I just read a quote from the St. Margaret Mary book you gave me about how we're called to sainthood. I love when God does things like that. =)
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