November 1, 2024 This homily is for this publication only as I am at St. Gregory Abbey in Oklahoma
Revelations 7: 2-4, 9-14 + Psalm 24 + 1 John 3: 1-3 + Matthew 5: 1-12
Growing up in a very “Catholic home,” I was surrounded by saints. There was a statue or two in every bedroom, and easily that many pictures on walls. Their stories were known by all the kids because the Sisters would fill in their lesson plans with those stories when the material ran short. The classrooms had more statues than our home.
The Jesuit, James Martin, published a book called: “My Life with the Saints.” In that book he says that he could easily recognize himself, or at least parts of himself in their stories. I can’t make that claim. The Saints that the Church has recognized for their outstanding holiness never lived my life. They would find it dull and far too routine. I sometimes think that if they had lived my life, they wouldn’t have become saints! The Saints that I really know about had heroic lives, some suffered terrible cruelty, and some were murdered or surrendered their lives for their faith, for the sake of justice, or simply for other people. If I’m really honest with myself, I am not sure today that I could do that.
Yet, when I really think about it, I suspect that those great heroic Saints never set out to be heroes or planned to be saintly. Not long ago, on the evening news, a man who had jumped into a lake to pull a woman and two children out of sinking car was being interviewed on camera. The person holding the microphone commented on the fact that the lake was full of alligators, and she called him a hero. He blinked, shrugged his shoulders and said: “I just did what needed to be done.”
Maybe that’s what it really takes to be saintly, doing what needs to be done. I think that’s what Mother Theresa would have said, or Theresa of Avila, or the Curé of Ars, or John Paul II. They just did what needed to be done. Now and then I run into people who are trying to be saintly. I find them to be a bit odd, sometimes phony, and their pious behavior does not attract nor interest me. I’m not sure we can “try out” for holiness. It seems to me that holiness and sanctity are consequences of humble, sincere, simple lived by someone who just does what needs to be done not for some recognition or reward, but because there is someone else in need.