“The true gentleman is God’s servant.”-Unknown
One thing I always wondered about was the concept of sainthood. If we are all sons and daughters of God, equal before God, then why should the Church condone the building up of individuals by creating saints?
I brought this question to a learned friend of mine and his question convinced me…, so I thought I might share.
The God of Christianity is unique in that he’s the only one to lower Himself to the status of ‘human’ and so share in our common humanity. In doing so God led by example rather than demands and so we know that to spread the good news is to live the good news. The problem with this is that humanity being as it is (flawed) man was destined to question ‘How are we to apply what Jesus said and did to life in this modern world?’. In creating the ideal of sainthood the Church ensured that the way in which Jesus lived could be continually adapted as time moves on. This means we need not look back 2000 years but rather ten or twenty years. So the word ’saint’ is infact the title given to someone who truly lived as Jesus taught and by their live showed others how to do the same.
The problem that has arisen with this ’system’ is the idea that if God has a ‘plan’ for us all is the ideal that is sainthood not far beyond the reach of any of us. To say this is to put saints on a further pedastle. The canonisation of a saint does not strip the humanity from that person. Saints are flawed as we all are but someone recognised as a saint is simply a way of saying ‘This person was human, this person was flawed, this person made mistakes…but this person lived out a strong faith in life and in so doing showed others the way to God. This person loved God and loved man and through their holy life brought them closer to each other.’
The next question is what is ‘holy’? My way of answering this question is abstract but, by my reasoning, is valid enough to stand. If, as Saint John proclaimed, God is love, then love in itself is sacred…..,love in itself is holy. This means that the love between family and friends is a holy love and this also explains how the union between man and wife is a ‘holy’ union. From this reasoning I would then believe that a ’saint’ is someone who loves. Just that simple. Someone who loves God and neighbour and feels compassion and empathy for those in pain. For me a ’saint’ is someone who refuses to become self obsessed and consumed by anger or hatred but exists in a state of love.
This means that sainthood as an ideal is within the grasp of all men and women as love is central to what makes us human. Pope John Paul II stressed this when he spoke of sainthood as something which all people of God should aim towards.
Friday, June 29th, 2007 and is filed under Thoughts & Questions.
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