How to Become a Saint?
Today we're celebrating a special day - All Saints' Day. The Church remembers a saint almost every day of the liturgical year. Celebrating all the saints means that the Church recognises that the list of saints in the martyrology is not exhaustive.
There are indeed many unknown saints; saints whom the Church has not yet had the opportunity to discover and confirm through her process of canonisation. At All Saints, all these unknown saints are celebrated as well.
To be a saint is to reach the goal for which God created us, that is, to live in eternal happiness. But the truth is, most of us don't think about becoming holy, or trying to be holy, in our everyday lives. We know it's the main goal of being a Christian, but we didn’t really focus on that.
We need to remember that our time on this earth is limited, therefore we should focus on living a life that leads us to eternal happiness. We need to fill our hearts and minds with the desire to be holy, to be the best version of ourselves, and to live a life that reflects our faith.
In the Gospel, Jesus, through the Beatitudes, reveals to us the way of holiness. How do we become saints? Jesus answers us through the Beatitudes. To become a saint, we need to live a life that's truly blessed, right here on earth. That is to say, we must be humble, kind, merciful, just, compassionate, and so on.
To be humble in heart is to have a heart filled not with the love of the world, but with the love of God and of neighbour. A humble heart loves God above all things and puts love above everything.
To be truly kind, we need to make an effort to see things from God's perspective and understand others as He does. This means looking at people with kindness and acceptance, no matter what. We therefore cannot do violence to those whose reactions and sorrows we understand. kindness is all about being merciful and compassionate.
So, on this Sunday of All Saints, let us pray to the saints known and unknown to intercede for us, so that God may grant us the gift of living a truly blessed life, for it is such a life that will lead us to holiness.
May God bless you now and forever.
Fr. Maurice, sx
