Called to be Holy Ep1/All Saints Day

This is part of a 4 part series on the Universal Call to Holiness.

When I think of saints, I immediately think of a group of holy men and women who are way ahead of me in the pursuit of holiness. When I attend mass on this day of obligation, I hear the Litany of Saints being recited and many of my own favourite saints are mentioned. Yet, really what does it mean to be a saint? Does it mean simply living a life of virtue or being a model of Christian "perfection"? For much of my life I have idealised the idea of perfection - placed it on a pedestal and tried my utmost best to reach this pinnacle. Along the way, I have been reminded time and again, that I am human. Only in recent years, has my concept of perfection changed. What the saints represent is not some idealised form of "perfection" which we would associate with usually. They are not living up to some false ideal nor do they "have it all together" all of the time, much like we might like to think. I quote a few nuggets of wisdom from "Amazing Grace - A vocabulary of faith" by Kathleen Norris in her chapter entitled "Perfection".

Perfection, in a Christian sense , means becoming mature enough to give ourselves to others. Whatever we have, no matter how little it seems, is something that can be shared with those who are poorer.

Perfection seems scary to a lot of us because we struggle to live up to this "ideal". We think that these saints we venerate are "holier than thou" - as if they were not real people. However, many saints reveal to us the brokenness of human nature and the ability of Christ to redeem and to effect change from within. Yet, perfection arises not from a false sense of attainment of some end goal or some veneer we place over our lives. Perfection is far from "perfect". Instead, it calls to something deeper within ourselves, our desires themselves!

This sort of perfection demands that we become fully ourselves as God would have us: mature, ripe, full, ready for what befalls us, for whatever it is to come.

The perfection we should hunger for is not of this world - it doesn't lie in living a life unblemished by pain and struggle. In fact, many saints embraced struggle as a pathway to sanctity. I have always loved this image of the refining fire, the fire that burns away my selfish intentions, the fire that burns away my disordered desires. Very often, we are afraid of the divine fire because of what it entails, it is not comfortable, it is not for the faint of heart. Yet, where did the saints draw their strength from? Surely, not their own. They turned to the source of all life, Love Himself and drew from the divine fire that never goes out. They drew from Him who nourishes the weary soul, who desires only for our sincere seeking of Him. He sees us as we are, with all our facades stripped away. He looks straight through past all the layers to the heart beating in the chest. So, what truly do our hearts beat for?

For these holy men and women we remember today, their hearts beat in union for their Creator who loved them. Their hearts beat in unison to His divine song and we too, here on Earth join the communion of saints. Let us seek this perfection we are called to and surrender to the desire deep in our hearts, to also long for holiness and to keep our eyes fixed on Heaven.