Who do you look up to
Whether or not we would admit it, most have people they admire and even perhaps take as role models. Certainly, it cannot be denied that there are amazing examples of the best humanity has to offer.
The Church wisely takes this human trait to heart in proclaiming some as saints in heaven because of the lives they have led in the here and now. Today (Sunday) is “All Saints” day when canonized saints are held up for the faithful to admire and emulate.
For the Church to say categorially that a particular person is with God in heaven requires research into the holiness of their lives confirmed by two miracles.
Yet there are so many uncanonized Saints who have gone to their heavenly home. We have all come across people in our families or others for whom we can say she/he is a real saint.
Many canonized saints have given their lives for their faith as martyrs. Likewise, there are many uncanonized saints especially Christians, who are persecuted all over the world. In the words of that great man of our times Martin Luther King JNR, “if a man(inclusive sense) has not found something worth dying for then he isn’t fit to live.” He himself died at the hands of an assassin’s bullet just like Saint Archbishop Oscar Romero while celebrating Holy Mass in El Salvadore in 1980.
Both of these great men by their life and death had changed the lives of so many and left an undying legacy. Humanity can throw up individuals who have changed the course of history forever. This gives us great hope for the future.
Thomas More, after whom this blog is named, was one of the greatest Englishmen ever and gave up being chancellor of England because he would not bow to the edict of King Henry VIII to declare himself head of the Church in England so that he could divorce himself from Catherine of Aragon to marry Anne Bolyne. Before being beheaded Thomas More said, “the king has commanded me to be brief so brief I shall be. I die the king’s good servant but God’s first.”
Everyone is called to sainthood; to use our gifts and talents and if necessary lay down our lives for a higher truth. Sainthood starts here and now and is dependent upon seeing others and the world through the prism of love. God is love and Jesus came to accompany us on a lifelong journey of love and gave his life for love so that all can be saints in heaven whether canonized as such or not.
Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutter said. “Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.” Good advice for sainthood.