God Made Us to Become Saints. Can You Believe It?

Does our devotion to the saints take away our devotion to Jesus?  My mother did not think so.  In fact, she thought it strengthened our love for Jesus and his love for us.  This became evident to me at an early age when one morning she and I attended daily Mass.

 Our parish church, St. Anthony of Padua, had as many statues of saints as it had parishioners.  At least it seemed that way to me, a curious five-year-old. My mother sat me down in the pew and said, “Look at all these statues.”  As she pointed around the church with both hands, she said, “These are called saints.  They live with God and Jesus in heaven who are often busy with many things, so the saints help them.”

 She paused and added, “Sit here and get to know these saints.”  She lingered a moment, and then said, “Make them your friends.”  Interrupting her, I inquired,  “Why?”  She simply noted,“ Because one day you may need their help and they can teach you how to be a good friend to Jesus.”  Then she stopped talking and began her own prayers.

 My mother had her own friendships with saints.  After Mass she made three stops at three statues.  She went to St. Lucy, lighted a candle, bowed her head and prayed.  Next it was St. Anthony, which was usually crowded.  There she repeated her ritual: candle, bowed head, and prayers.  Lastly, we stopped at Mary’s statue, near the high altar, where again she calmly expressed her silent requests.

 I asked her, “Why these three saints and not the others?”  She responded, “St. Lucy for my eyesight; St. Anthony to help me find things, and Mary to help me raise you and your sisters as good as she did Jesus.”

 That day is the stand-out day in my education on the saints.  I learned how different saints are and the diverse ways they want to help us get to where they are.  St. Francis de Sales believes deeply that God calls us all to be saints.  God does it by asking us: “To be who you are and be that well as a witness to the God who made us.”

 That’s the great lesson I learned.  We don’t have to be them, but we have to be who we are.  And we have to love who we are just as God, our loving Father, does. We can’t spend our lives regretting who we are not. 

 As Fr. Jim Martin writes: “God has placed me here, with my talents, skills, as well as my weaknesses and limitations.”  My question then is not, “What would St. Francis de Sales do? Rather, what does God want me to do in this present moment?”  That’s our better path to holiness and it’s the same question for each of us.

 During November, we honor all the saints.  As we do, we celebrate their wonderful accomplishments, and anticipate the day when we will stand with them.  Like them we are all ordinary people taking care of the little things in our lives “extraordinarily well.”

 As my mother taught me long ago in that pew, becoming a saint is simply a call to friendship first with those saints that surrounded me in that church, and then with the God who created me.

 When we decide to follow that lesson, the saints will help us with courage and prayers.  For our God longs for the day he can greet us as the persons we are, and the saints he always hoped we’d become.

Let us not forget the maxims of the saints, who teach us to advance a little further each day on the road to perfection. -Saint Francis de Sales