stopped whatever they were doing in order to pursue a greater good. They dropped their own ideas about how to find the little girl. They joined together and through a unified effort, found the lost child. God’s mercy and love were made real by the neighbors.
No Two Alike
The saints are all around, in statues and pictures, in names of islands, cities, health care and educational institutions, and streets. The saints are very necessary as intercessors, as friends, as inspirations, as unique springs of wisdom and as the best models to follow. If God’s bright white light was refracted into an innumerable array of colors, each saint would be represented by a few of those colors. Each color stands for something of God’s attributes. Jesus invaded the life of each saint and to Jesus the saint said, “Welcome!”
Who among the saints would be a good friend for me? Pier Giorgio and John Paul II were rugged mountain climbers. However, the spiritual quest does not necessarily require immense strength, high energy or great vigor. Holiness is not confined to a station in life or specific personality traits. Goodness springs from all ambitions if a person continually asks for God’s guidance and trusts in his providence. There were many saints who had poor health, among them Gemma Galgani, Bernadette Soubirous, and Faustina Kowalska. Paul of the Cross said, “Truly sickness is a great God given grace. It makes us discover who we are.” Bearing illness or bad situations patiently can well be factors that make a person a saint. One can begin to find God in circumstances that are anything but favorable. People have connected with the divine in a prison or hospital as well as in a library or an open field. There is a wide and wonderful variety of saints, over ten thousand of them canonized, from Adelaide, a queen, to Zita, a servant. And there will be more to come.
No two saints are alike. Similar to flowers in the field, they are all different in color, size, shape and aroma. A dearly beloved saint, Therese of Lisieux, reflects: “In the world of souls, the living garden of the Lord, it pleases him to create great saints, who may be compared with the lilies or the rose; but he has also created little ones, who must be content to be daisies or violets.” Augustine’s life shows how it doesn’t matter what one’s past has been. He was a heretic who lived with a woman for fifteen years and fathered her son. He had a conversion experience and went on to become a most influential philosopher, theologian and doctor of the Church. Catherine of Genoa’s husband was unfaithful and ill-tempered. He squandered their money to bankruptcy. Catherine endured and cared for the poor. Her husband saw the error of his ways, had a conversion and helped Catherine with her work with the destitute. Her writings, especially about purgatory, are insightful and comforting. Thomas More was a husband, father, lawyer, statesman and held a high governmental office. He had immense moral and religious courage. When he said no to the king he was beheaded. Benedict Joseph Labre was God’s hobo. He was a misfit, vagabond, and in the world’s terms a strange character and a failure. He had no one but God. He gave what little he had to others and spent much time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. He died homeless, on the streets of Rome at age thirty-five, most likely of malnutrition. When he died the people of Rome chanted, “E Morto il Santo,” the saint is dead.
In her “Act of Oblation to Merciful Love,” Therese of Lisieux wrote, “I desire, in a word, to be a saint, but I feel my helplessness and I beg you O my God to be yourself my sanctity!” She encourages us to be unafraid: “If you wish to be a saint, it is not hard. Have one aim, to please Jesus. . . . Love him who is love itself.”
God calls a person to sainthood through his own unique design. John Ayscough said: “Every saint is a little looking glass of God; a facet of the jewel which constitutes the Catholic Church.” Striving to be a saint is not all peaches and cream.
If we were saints, we wouldn’t have it easier, nor would we have special privileges, nor receive special gifts. The saints did not have it as easy as we would like to believe. They were men and women just as we are. They didn’t live in greenhouses, isolated from temptation and sin. Otherwise their sanctity would have no special merit. They lived in the world as we do, and still served God in an extraordinary way. They loved the world: the aroma of a flower, the charm of an attractive animal, the confidence of little children, the friendship of mature men and women, and still won eternal life. They knew guilt and experienced the false way which the human heart travels. Still they asked for forgiveness. They fell, and committed the same mistakes. Yet they rose again and again and thanked God who gave them the strength to do so. They also had bodies. They experienced within themselves the humbling weakness and inadequacy of human nature. Still they never forgot that they were children of God. The world was the workshop of their lives, but they never lost sight of the goal of their earthly pilgrimage—eternity.2
Shining for All
God’s love shines in us and through us to others. The intensity of our light is a good measure of our love for Jesus and his Church. Holiness is dynamic, with a myriad of expressions that may change throughout one’s lifetime. Great deeds do not necessarily mean advancement on the holy trail. This is usually made in small steps toward the holy, sometimes so small they can’t even be seen. Stronger fidelity to God occurs when holiness shakes up the self satisfaction we can often develop toward our behavior and actions. Negative self discoveries can lead to positive change. Holiness is a clarion call that moves an individual from comfort and complacency to a yearning that cannot be fully satisfied and a search that is unceasing. Cursory religious practices deepen into communion with a God who is mystery. Images of God become ever changing, ever growing, until they finally disappear into God who is beyond all imaginative boundaries. Holiness is far from dull and boring! Rather, it keeps an individual ever watchful for the next good step, thus moving ever closer to God.
Holiness pushes us ahead, even though we may not have a clue regarding where we are going. Thomas Merton prayed:
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.3
This prayer illustrates how the pursuit of holiness is a journey from a known, limited landscape to an unknown, endless terrain. Moving forward begins to broaden a previously limited notion of who we think God is and what he expects of us. His eternal realm suddenly shines before and around us. We are guided by John Paul II: “Life, long or short, is a journey toward paradise. There is our fatherland. There is our real home. There is our appointment. Jesus is waiting for us in paradise. Never forget this supreme and consoling truth.”
Truths of God transform lives. His burning light melts facades, masks, and pretenses and illuminates the true self. Sinfulness and powerlessness cause a person to be more dependent on God. Vices, anxieties, uncertainties and sins are faced without self-pity or discouragement, confident that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28). Although holiness has no simple definition, there is a reassuring constant. Every time we fall into sin, we must get up. Fall a thousand times, get up a thousand times is no small statement. Yes, holy people sin, but by the grace of God they get up, dust themselves off and try to do better. Sin has a strong tie with an enlarged ego. An increased ability to transcend self is a release from self-absorption. As we loosen our grasp on fulfilling our potential or actualizing ourselves, it frees us to discover the ingredients for spiritual growth in all of life’s circumstances. By integrating the elements of spiritual development, a person develops an unpretentious transparency, an unobtrusive demeanor and an indisputable
