Saints

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All Saints Day, Blessed Mother, canonized, earnest, faith, genuine, martyrdom, sainthood, saints, sincere, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Timothy, wholehearted

Today, the feast of All Saints in Western Christianity, always seemed to me in my younger days as sort of a “catch-all” for those of us who were not named after a canonized saint: a holy person (often a martyr for the faith) proclaimed as such by a Church celebration and venerated on their own special day. It was a relief to me that my middle name was Ann so that I lived under the protection of the Blessed Mother’s mother. Actually I found it pretty cool to have the grandmother of Jesus as my patron saint! Otherwise I would have had to settle for St. Louis – not the city but a King of France. Later I also found Lois in the Scriptures at the beginning of the second letter to Timothy: I find myself thinking of your sincere faith – faith which first belonged to your grandmother Lois and to your mother Eunice, and which I am confident that you also have. (2 TM 1:4-5) That convinced me that I was covered on both counts – first and middle names – and that it was lucky to have two extra grandmothers to watch over me.

This morning I was thinking about what makes a person worthy of the title “saint” and for some reason (before I was even thinking about Timothy’s grandmother) the word that came to me was sincere. Knowing that St. Paul called all those who received his letters “saints” made me conclude – as the Church has – that martyrdom isn’t the only way to be considered as a saint. Maybe we can only be called “saints in the making” but I think sincerity is a good place to start defining. Sincere, Merriam Webster says, means wholehearted, heartfelt, unfeigned, genuine in feeling, absent of hypocrisy, embellishment or exaggeration, earnest devotedness…

As I go through this day I expect to encounter a number of people who are on their way to sainthood. I will try to pay attention to the ways they act out that potential and maybe have a fuller definition by nightfall. Won’t you join me in the search?