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We are celebrating three great saints these days – Patrick, Joseph and Benedict’s passing on the 21st March. We are all tasked with becoming saints.
Saint Basil summed up the paradoxical nature of this vocation, “we are creatures”, he wrote, “but we are creatures who have received the command to become divine”. Creatures who are meant to become divine. Quite a challenge.
There is a story I like about sancts – about becoming divine.
A young boy was in church with his mother. She was lighting candles and visiting shrines.The young boy was running round, examining everything.
After a while, all went quiet. She looked up and there he was standing, looking up at a stained glass window. The sun was streaming through and there he stood, fascinated by light and the different colours dancing on the floor.
His mother approached him and he began asking questions. There was a statue to the right and he asked her who that was. “That is Holy God”. Close by was another statue and again he enquired who it was. “That’s God’s holy mother”, his mother told him. Next he pointed at the stained-glass windows, “who are they”? And she said, “they are the saints”. The boy pondered and said no more.
The next day he was in religion class and the topic for discussion happened to be saints. ‘What was a saint?’, the class was asked.
Quick as a flash, our friend put up his hand. “They are the ones that let the light shine through”. May we all learn to let the light shine through.