You are a saint

We all have people in our lives that are, in our estimation, saints. That person might be a parent, or grandparents, a friend, a spiritual guide, there are people who we can point to and say, “Yes, that person is saint” and I usually also think, “I want to grow up one day and be just like Mike”. But most of the time that seems to be an impossible task for me to achieve.

We study the saints of the Church – we even try to emulate them. Every Sunday we pray that we can be like the blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Augustine of Canterbury, Saint Brigid, and Saint Margaret. But we still struggle with the idea, that we, I, just a normal person, could actually live a daily life like one of our revered saints.

This morning (Matthew 16:21-28) we hear Jesus say to Saint Peter, the founder of the Church in Jerusalem and the father of the Church of Rome, “Get behind me, Satan!” That might be something I might expect Jesus to say to me, but not to Saint Peter. How did Peter move from suffering the wrath of Jesus, to sainthood?

Peter walked the same journey of our life – our journey to everyday sainthood. Yes, I do believe that Jesus calls all of us to be everyday saints. So, the question is how do we do such a thing in the face of so much personal humanness?

Saint Paul outlines for us some excellent spiritual direction in the regards of everyday sainthood. (Romans 12:9-21)

"Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all…if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink….Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

I don’t know about you, but that takes sainthood right out of my reach. It is so confounding at times – any attempt to live the mystical Christian life is just plain impossible – isn’t it?

That’s the point I had reached almost twenty years ago – when I had deconstructed Christianity into non-existence in my life. And then someone handed me a copy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Letter’s and Papers from Prison.

"Jesus calls us, not to a new religion, but to life. But what does that look like, this participation in the powerlessness of God in the world?....I am still discovering right up to this moment, that it is only by living completely in the world that one learns to have faith. One must completely abandon any attempt to make something of oneself, whether it be a saint, or a converted sinner, or a churchman, a righteous person or an unrighteous one, a sick person or a healthy one….I mean living unreservedly in life’s duties, problems, successes and failures, experiences and perplexities. In doing so we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God, taking seriously, not our own sufferings, but those of God in the world – watching with Christ in Gethsemane. That is, I think, faith…and that is one becomes a person and a Christian. How can success make us arrogant, or failure lead us astray, when we share in God’s sufferings through a life of this kind?" (LPP 1967, pages 201-2).

Bonhoeffer is saying that to be saint, we don’t need to try and be a saint, we simply live real life in the world and that act in itself will throw us into the arms of God. And living life in the arms of God removes the fears of success and the fears of failure, replacing them with the love of Christ for others.

I do think this is the kind of life we are being called into by Saint Paul, a life of love, service, hope, prayer, patience and hospitality. These are the characteristics of everyday sainthood. And even when we fail, because we will, we are still falling into the arms of God. For God will catch us, hold us, comfort us, and encourage us, and then God sends us back out into the world to be Christ for others yet another day.

This was one of those weeks when it seemed impossible to be an everyday saint, or even a Christian. I had to close our preschool this week. That meant I had to tell a dozen people they were out of work. And I had to tell thirty parents they needed to find new childcare. There was obvious confusion, pain, hurt, and upset. But God was in the mess and suffering in it all – even when that seemed impossible. God was there in the faces of beautiful children. God was there in the maturity of staff beyond their years. And God was there in majority of understanding parents. God is here, living in the every day of life.

Jesus is not calling us into a new religion, but to a new life – a life that is lived completely in the world, totally reliant upon God to sustain us when it seems impossible to human or even Christian, much less a saint. But that is the life of the everyday saint – living in the arms of God.