We are called for holiness

Solemnity of All Saints 

"Don't try to be too holy!" We frequently hear the following caution from well-intentioned persons as if the condition of being too holy could even lead to our damnation. Holiness as a life-goal is no longer fashionable in our society. In today’s world, holiness comes across and sanctimonious self-righteousness, and generally a tumour that has to be excised from the rest of the community, if the latter is to survive.  

The Catholic Church’s celebration of the feast day of saints, its continued practice and tradition of canonising ordinary men and women as saints, certainly goes against the tide of this prevalent trend. As opposed to the world, the Church is making this loud claim, “we love our saints!” Almost every day of the liturgical year is dedicated to a saint. In other words, during an entire liturgical year, the Church provides us with so many heroic examples of faith and holiness. We don’t seem to have enough of them. Pope Saint John Paul II, during his pontificate, had canonised more saints than all his predecessors. When asked why he did so, his reply was this: “In a world that is faithless, we need more models of faith. In a world that is hopeless, we need examples of hope. In a world that is so full of violence and death, we need shining beacons of peace.” In other words, by venerating and honouring the saints, the Catholic Church re-establishes the perennial norm for humanity – it isn’t about being bad but about being holy. Saints are supposed to be the norm, not the anomalies.

That’s who saints really are – they show all of us, not only Christians, what it means to be fully human. St Ireaneus says, “The glory of God is man fully alive, but man fully alive is man glorifying God.” But unlike the humanised version of a hero or the recent abomination of the anti-hero, these Christian heroes are mirrors which allow us to see the goodness, the greatness and the love of God. They give a face to the invisible God.

Saints are not superhuman beings. They are not angelic beings who have gotten rid of their humanity. No. The saints are fully human just like you and me. The saints are heroic because their lives demonstrate that they are fully grounded in their own humanness. They are fully human because they are in touch with human pain and suffering. They undergo pain and suffering and yet emerge victorious because they have not allowed despair to overtake them. They are living proof of the beatitudes: “How happy are the poor in spirit, theirs is the kingdom of heaven … Happy those who mourn: they shall be comforted …Happy those who are persecuted in the cause of right: theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

One of the greatest Catholic preachers in American history, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, the father of TV evangelisation long before the Protestant evangelicals discovered this medium, used to say, that he preferred to live in times when the Church has suffered rather than thrived, when the Church had to struggle, when the Church had to go against the culture. It was a time for real men and real women to stand up and be counted. “Even dead bodies can float downstream,” he used to say, “but it takes a real man, a real woman, to swim against the current.” This is a time in which all of us need to focus ever more on holiness. We're called to be saints and how much our society here needs to see this beautiful, radiant face of the Church. This is one of those times. It's a great time to be a Christian. It is wonderful time to be Catholic. It is a necessary time to be a Saint.

For a world that has grown accustomed to sin, holiness does often seem outdated...old-fashioned. But, as Pope Benedict XVI has taught: "Holiness never goes out of fashion; on the contrary, with the passage of time it shines out ever more brightly, expressing man's perennial effort to reach God."  Make no mistake, holiness will cost something. Those who aspire to make holiness their priority in life must count it no strange thing to be mocked, ridiculed, slandered, persecuted, and even hated. And in a world where faith and religion is held up to scorn, holiness has now become the new scandal! A Christian who faithfully lives up the high calling of perfection must submit to the fate of being called fool, idealist, and a fanatic; to have his words perverted and his actions misrepresented. But this is his edge – this is what makes the Christian salt of the earth and light of world. This is also what makes his life witness paradoxically attractive to every soul thirsting for greater spiritual depth in a world that can only offer shallow lies. In all this we remember the world does not set the standards for us. In matters of spirituality, mediocrity is never an option. Only the highest standards of excellence is demanded. We follow only one standard – “to be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” As for holiness, we can never have enough of it.