All Saints

Human beings need heroes, role models to look up to and say, “I want to be like him or like her. They did it, so I guess it’s possible for me to do it too!”

            Unfortunately, many of our heroes don’t last very long. It seems like every day we get bombarded with new opportunities for disillusionment: a political leader we admired is indicted for bribery and extortion; a sports figure who has given hope and pride to millions of young people is convicted of rape; a priest who has preached peace and love to his parish for many years is arrested for pedophilia.

            As mature and compassionate people, we try to understand and forgive the weaknesses of our public figures; but it hurts and can tempt us to lose faith in others and, more tragically, in our own potential for goodness.

            It’s a lot easier for us to be discouraged by these living, wayward role models than to be encouraged and inspired by those role models we call saints. We tend to see ourselves more prone to human frailty — like those flesh and blood figures we read about in the New York Times — than to holiness like some distant saint from a faraway time and place.

            Maybe that’s because we’ve made the saints untouchable. Some of that is due to remoteness — let’s face it, they’re dead. But some of it may be because we’ve mythologized the saints: made them into something that we ourselves can never be — perfect. But if we look closely, we just might notice how much like us the saints really were. And once we notice that, we just might realize how much like them we are really called to be.

            But what is a saint? For openers, they were real live flesh and blood human beings like you and me. They all had  hopes and dreams, fears and self doubts, good days and bad days like we do. They made mistakes; they may even have been selfish and petty, possibly nasty, at times. They were people with all the imperfections, troubles, and joys that we ourselves experience. They would understand our struggles because they themselves have been through them.

            We need to take the saints down from the pedestals and the dashboards that we’ve put them on, and bring them into our everyday lives. That way, they can become touchable to us. We can look at them and say, “I want to be like him or her. They did it so I know that I can do it too!”

            I have always found Saint Peter to be most encouraging. He was a man after my own heart. He was emotional, impulsive and often indecisive. He shouted his undying loyalty to Jesus barely twelve hours before he pretended that he never knew him. But Peter, unlike Judas, kept scraping himself up off the floor each time that he failed. Each time he deeply felt shame and remorse, but recommitted himself anew to Jesus from his heart. However, his human nature kept getting in his way. After being forgiven over and over again, and given the responsibility of being the rock of Jesus’ church, Peter still made mistakes.

            As legend has it, Peter was making a quick getaway from Rome while Nero was executing his parishioners. He happened to run into his conscience — in the form of Jesus — on the Appian Way.  Jesus asked him a question, “Quo Vadis? Where are you going, Peter?” And Peter, remorseful, once more recommitted himself. He turned around, returned to Rome and to martyrdom.

            Saint Peter was one of Jesus’ very best friends; and today, twenty centuries later, he is one of our greatest saints. But, you know something? He was far from perfect — right up to the end.

            God is calling you and me to be saints. The word ‘saint’ comes from the Latin word ‘sanctus’ which means ‘holy’. And ‘holy’ with an h really means ‘wholly’ with a wh. God wants us to be whole, to eventually get it all together. But God wants us to realize that this will probably never happen during our lifetime on earth; that we, like the greatest of saints, are human and will continue to have good days and bad days.

            Instead, God asks us to commit ourselves to the process of BECOMING whole: to live our lives with a fundamental option for goodness, compassion, forgiveness, and unconditional love; to keep renewing and recommitting ourselves to that option each time we fall. God asks us to look at the saints and to say, “I can do it too!”

            God is calling us all to be saints.

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Readers of this blog might enjoy these books by Deacon Lex. Both are available on Amazon.com:

Just to Follow My Friend: Experiencing God’s Presence in Everyday Life

Synchronicity as the Work of the Holy Spirit: Jungian Insights for Spiritual Direction and Pastoral Ministry