To Be or Not to Be . . . a Saint

This past week I was interviewed about saints for a podcast, so I thought I’d share some thoughts about them this week. I believe it was Leon Bloy who noted, “The only failure in life is not to be a saint.” A saint is someone who made it to heaven. Consider the alternative. Sometimes people say (or think) “I’m no saint.” No, none of us earthlings are yet. We still have time to determine our eternal future. Our concept of a saint might be a grim person, a goody-goody, a priest or nun . . . but not us. But saints were as human as we are. They too had failings, as someone put it, “tilted haloes.” St. Jerome had a temper, St. Therese was sensitive, St. Augustine once stole pears—not to mention his other sins. But the saints lived in a way that mattered: they loved God and people the way Jesus did.

A youngster was asked what a saint was.  Thinking of stained-glass windows, he replied: “A saint is someone the light shines through.”  Yes, saints let the light and love of Christ shine through them. For that, they achieved our most important goal: life with God forever.

Saints were like us in that they had a sense of humor and were playful.  St. Francis of Assisi picked up sticks in the woods and pretended to play the violin. St. Julie Billiart told a sobbing young sister who was being separated from her, “You may only shed five tears a day—in honor of the five wounds of Jesus.” When Thomas More was about to be beheaded, he moved his beard away from the blade, telling the executioner, “It hasn’t done anything wrong.” And we mustn’t forget St. Lawrence, who while being burned to death for his faith said, “Turn me over. I’m done on this side.”
Saints were like us in that they had good friends: St. Francis and his cousin St. Clare; St. Teresa of Avila and her short friend St. John of the Cross, whom she called her half-priest; St. Vincent de Paul and St. Louise de Marillac. When St. Francis Xavier was in China, he missed his Jesuit colleagues so much that he pinned the signatures on their letters inside his habit.  Click to continue