Are You A Saint?

Patreon 11.1.22

Pansies are one of my favorite flowers. Their little faces radiate hope to me, here in all the colors of the rainbow.

Today is All Saints Day in the church calendar, meant to remember all Christian saints and martyrs. Perhaps we can do a little better than that.

First, consider this: we’re all saints. All. No exceptions.

Ever thought of yourself as a saint before? No? Well, it’s time you started. We’ve come to think saintliness means pious, and maybe sometimes it does, but what if we take it to a broader, more universal place?

What if being a saint means that when you’re the most you, your holiness [read: wholeness] shines through and helps to heal the world? There’s a different spin. It makes your job being the best you you can be.

Not to win a Nobel Prize or a MacArthur Genius Grant, no. Just to be the best you you can conceive at any given moment.

According to Google, there’s actually a process to become a saint — at least in the Catholic Church. Here it is:

“A formal request for an individual to be considered for sainthood is submitted to a special Vatican tribunal. The request must explain how the person lived a life of holiness, pureness, kindness and devotion. If the candidate meets the requirements, the tribunal officially recognizes this person to be a Servant of God.”

Well, okay, but I think instead there’s a little-known secret here. What makes a saint a saint is that person is a servant of God. Are you serving whatever/whoever you consider the Divine to be in your life? Excellent. You’re a saint.

Now about the martydom thing. Uh, yeah. Well, there’s a mystical way to look at that, too. Martyrs give something up to be just such a servant of God. We give things up all the time — there’s our martyrdom.

We stop swearing. Or we choose to exercise daily. Or we read more. Or … a hundred million other, smaller versions of what a martyr really does, which is sacrifice something.

Now that is a fascinating word: sacrifice. It’s in my book God’s Dictionary, wherein I take apart everyday words in a spiritual way. Sacrifice is two Latin words.

The first part sacr- means sacred. The second part -fice comes from the verb to make. So to sacrifice anything is “to make sacred.” And that’s what our giving up does for us. Letting go, giving up, making change takes whatever we release and makes each one of us more sacred.

Hence, we are all saints. Q.E.D.