In celebration of All Saints Day, I am re-running a nice reflection from Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on holiness
and becoming a saint. Being a saint really is not all that complicated, according to Benedict XVI, who
offers us a simple three-step recipe: Go to Mass on Sunday, begin and end the day in contact with God, and
make decisions according to the Ten Commandments. The Pope Emeritus offered this simple guide citing
Scripture and the Second Vatican Council, presenting us what is "the most essential" for reaching sanctity.
He said: "What is the most essential? Essential is that no Sunday be left without an encounter with the Risen
Christ in the Eucharist -- this is not a burden but light for the whole week. Never to begin or end a day without
at least a brief contact with God. And, in the journey of our life, to follow 'road signs' that God has communicated
to us in the Ten Commandments read with Christ, which is simply the definition of charity in specific situations.
I think this is the true simplicity and grandeur of the life of holiness: the encounter with the Risen One
on Sunday; contact with God at the beginning and end of the day; in decisions, to follow the 'road signs' that
God has communicated to us, which are simply forms of charity."
Everyone is called to holiness, the Pope Emeritus affirms. "How can we journey on the path of holiness, how
can we respond to this call? Can I do so with my own strength?" he asked. "The answer is clear: A holy life is
not primarily the fruit of our own effort, of our actions, because it is God, the thrice Holy, who makes us
saints, and the action of the Holy Spirit who encourages us from within; it is the life itself of the Risen Christ,
which has been communicated to us and which transforms us."
The former Bishop of Rome proposes another question: "Can we, with our limitations, our weakness, reach so
high?" Recalling the line-up of saints presented by the Church in the liturgical year -- from every period of
Church history, belonging to every age and state of life, he states that the saints are "the concrete faces of all
peoples, languages and nations. And they are very different among themselves." And the Pope emeritus pointed
to other "saints," who are also "road signs": "the simple saints, that is, the good persons that I see in my life,
who will never be canonized. They are ordinary people, to say it somehow, without a visible heroism, but in
their everyday goodness I see the truth of the faith. This goodness, which they have matured in the faith of the
Church, is for me a sure defense of Christianity and the sign of where the truth is." It is this communion with
saints, canonized or not, that enables us to cultivate a "firm hope of being able to imitate their way and share
one day the same blessed life, eternal life."
Finally, Pope Emeritus Benedict concludes with an invitation to be open to holiness. "I would like to invite you
to open yourselves to the action of the Holy Spirit, who transforms our life, to be, we also, pieces of the great
mosaic of holiness that God is creating in history, so that the Face of Christ will shine in the fullness of its brilliance.
Let us not be afraid to look on high, to the height of God; let us not be afraid that God will ask too
much of us, but let us be guided in all our daily actions by his Word, even if we feel that we are poor, inadequate,
sinners: He will be the one to transform us according to his love."
Since it is God who transforms us into Saints, let us let Him do it. We can all be Saints!
God bless you,
Father Joseph Byerley
All Rights Reserved | St. Rose of Lima