Feast of All Saints (Gospel: Matt 5:1-12a) Called to be saints

St. Teresa of Calcutta

 ‘I believe that if God finds a person more useless than me, He will do even greater things through her, because this work is His.’ This is a quotation from St. Teresa of Calcutta, better known as Mother Teresa. Often when you hear a quotation like this, it is tempting to think that the person who said it is just being pious, pretending they are no good when in fact they believe otherwise. However, the reality is that when God really uses us, He leaves us under no illusions as to how small we are and indeed it is often only after we discover how weak we are, that God can really work through us.

 

Everyone in heaven is a saint. Since we are all destined to go to heaven, that means that we are all called to be saints, but I think we often have very different ideas as to what it means to be a saint. Very few people are called to religious life, so it is not about that. However, all of us are called to respond to the ongoing invitation of God to come closer to him. For the most part it is done in the most ordinary and often unnoticeable ways. St. Thérèse of Lisieux made this clear. She was considered not only ordinary, but in fact when she was dying, she accidentally over-heard two of the other sisters saying to another, ‘I wonder what Mother Abbess will say about Thérèse when she dies, because she has never really done anything.’ It was only after her death that through her writings she was recognised as someone very holy, because of the way she lived ordinary things with great love.  She said that she knew she was not the kind of person who could do great fasts, or penances. She only felt capable of doing little things: putting up with the annoyances of the other sisters, making small sacrifices, but God showed her that these little things were just as important if they were done with love.

 

She also went through a time when she lost her faith. She said that she never really believed that atheists were being honest when they said they didn’t believe in God, until she experienced it herself. Towards the end of her life she was in so much physical pain, that she asked the sisters not to leave any medication near her as she was afraid she might take an overdose.

 

Nothing we do is too small, or too insignificant. What is important is that we do it for God and that we do it with love. For the most part that means just getting on with our daily routine, doing our work and looking after the people around us whatever way we are called to. It is in the way we live the ordinary things that brings us closer to God.

St. Therese of Lisieux (The Little Flower)

Today as we celebrate the saints in heaven, I always like to remember the fact that they too have been through all the same struggles that we are going through now: joys and disappointments; loved ones sick and dying; relationships that bring love and pain; the struggles of raising families, or just surviving our own weaknesses. They have been through all these things too. They struggled with their faith too, because that is just part of the journey. Perhaps one of the reasons why we recognise some people as being saints (the official saints, if you like), is not so much because they were extraordinary people, but rather they realised that they were completely dependent on God for everything, and as a result God was able to do great things through them. This reminds me of where St. Paul says, ‘But we have this treasure—our faith—in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us’ (2 Cor 4:7).  Paul, just like all the other holy men and women down through the centuries—was also aware that it was God who was doing the extraordinary things and not him.

 

In his letter to the Christians in Ephesus he writes: ‘It is by grace you have been saved, through faith. This is not from you. It is the gift of God.’ (Eph 2:8)

 

None of us can say that I am too ordinary, or too small, to be called to holiness, because it doesn’t depend on what we are able to do.  It only depends on us being open to God. The work is God’s and not ours. We don’t achieve holiness. It is God who brings it about.

 

‘If I ever become a Saint—I will surely be one of ‘darkness.’ I will continually be absent from Heaven—to light the light of those in darkness on earth.’

 

St. Teresa was a beacon of light, radiating God wherever she went. People’s lives were touched by just working with her and even just meeting her and yet in her soul she was going through a terrible darkness. She wrote this to her spiritual director:

 

‘Now Father—since 49 or 50 this terrible sense of loss—this untold darkness—this loneliness—this continual longing for God—which gives me that pain deep down in my heart.—Darkness is such that I really do not see—neither with my mind nor with my reason.—The place of God in my soul is blank.—There is no God in me.—When the pain of longing is so great—I just long and long for God—and then it is that I feel—He does not want me—He is not there.—God does not want me.—Sometimes—I just hear my own heart cry out—“My God” and nothing else comes.—The torture and pain I can’t explain.’

 

St. Pius of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio)

St. Pius of Pietrelcina, (1968†), better known as Padre Pio, is probably one of the greatest mystics of all time. He had the stigmata—the five wounds of Christ—in his body for 50 years. Then shortly before he died they all disappeared and his skin was like new. He had the gift of bilocation—being in two places at the one time. He was witnessed to be in two places multiple times, the most famous being the time during WWII when he was seen by multiple pilots at the same time. The allies had been sent on a bombing mission which included the area where his monastery was in San Giovanni Rotundo. The various pilots individually saw in front of them a monk beckoning them to go in a different direction, which they did. None of them knew who he was at the time. It was only later that some of them saw him at mass and recognized him as the ‘flying monk,’ as they called him.

 

He also had the gift of reading hearts in confession. From time to time a penitent would come to him and he would be shown something about them which he would then tell them, such as a sin from the past that they had omitted.

 

He said that more souls came to him from purgatory asking for prayers, than all the visitors he had on earth. He is believed to have been the most photographed man on earth when he was alive.

 

As it happens, these three saints I have mentioned were all in religious life, but most of the saints were not. There are thousands of holy men and women throughout the centuries, who lived holy lives, but most unnoticed. All of us are being called to come closer to God. It is not about what we can achieve. It is about remaining open to God and God will do everything else.