The Saints

During the middle ages there were people who attained to an extreme degree of holiness. These people traditionally have been called saints. The beauty of a saint is that he or she displays what is best in human nature, and gives us a glimpse of what our future with God is like. Some of the more well-known saints are Antony, Francis, and Clare. But indeed there were hundreds of them, though perhaps many of them remained relatively unknown.

Now I realize that today we think of a saint as someone who has been honored posthumously by the Catholic Church. But I think that this gets the order wrong. Someone deserves to be particularly honored by the Church because he or she is a saint. Sainthood is something intrinsic to the saint.

The basic character of a saint is love. He or she is fully pervaded by it. Contempt, anger, lust, and pride have been completely eliminated by the supernatural dispensation of charity. God Himself has come to dwell in his or her soul in a particular way. The human personality has been fully developed, with all of its specificity and uniqueness.

Because a saint is so pervaded by humility and love, God bestows a certain power upon him or her. Often this is a power to work miracles, but often too it is the power to lay down one’s life publicly for others—to be executed unjustly as it were. This is no easy thing to do. Sometimes saints are tortured rather fiercely.

But when we think about the miraculous powers that a saint has I think we can divide them into several categories. First is the power of the word. A saint has the ability to say and write things which will dramatically alter the lives of others. These words are ‘full of grace’ as it were, a spiritual power; supernatural thought and feeling pervades what they say. The second power is that of presence. Because God dwells so profoundly in his or her soul, the mere presence of the saint, in a room, or before a crowd for example, moves others very deeply, and sometimes causes people to repent from their former way of life without any words being spoken.

The third power that a saint has is knowledge. The saint’s mind has been fully developed by God’s Spirit, and sometimes has the sensitivity to see things at great distances or even before they happen. They are able to find the meaning of everything they read as well.

The fourth power might be called a power to the body. The energy of God’s life flows through the saint’s soul into his or her body, clothes, possessions etc. Simply by laying his or her hands on someone diseases can be healed, and mental illnesses can be cured. In the book of Acts it is said that people used to take handkerchiefs that had touched St. Paul’s body and use them to heal others.

The fifth power is prayer. The saint stands so honestly and humbly before God that it is safe for them to “ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you,” as Christ promised. This prayer does not only amount to requests for specific things like the needs of others but also an ability to enter into a special intimacy with God. The saints know God in deep experiences.

The sixth and I think final power of a saint is authority. Not only has the saint the ability to talk to God and have things done, the saint can also command even physical things and they will obey. This is a matter of his or her spirit having mastered the forces that run the universe, even as Christ had. This ability was given to some of the prophets, such as Elijah, but it also can be seen in the desert Fathers such as Hilairion, and also some of the later saints like Francis. Christ not only healed people, but He also stilled the storm, walked on water, and killed a fig tree by His word.

Something that the saints also have is beauty. Their souls are beautiful, and almost visible. Their bodies are somewhat radiant, and they always stand out in a crowd.

Now our world desperately needs people like this. They are able to mediate the power and personality of God in such a way as to bring about the good of everyone. Not everyone can be a St. Francis or Thomas for that matter, but everyone can trust and listen to him.

What makes a saint? Saints in the middle ages were regarded kind of like we regard professional athletes and politicians. They are masters of discipline and power. To become a saint seems to take a long time of training, much suffering, as well as God’s specific gift of sanctity. People are blessed with this gift not necessarily for their own sake but rather so that they can help lead others more deeply into the kingdom.

This is no longer thought to be an option. Part of the tragedy of the 20^th and 21^st century world is that no one makes the serious attempt to become this kind of person. As it takes discipline from even the youngest years to become a master pianist, it takes discipline and grace from a young age, at least the teens and twenties, in order to reach the heights of great sanctity.

What training is involved? From what I’ve read, substantial solitude, chastity, and sometimes poverty are necessary to bring about the changes which must be made. These disciplines break the hold that the world has on the individual, and allow his or her soul to trust in God alone. Most of us cannot stand the kind of life that brings about the highest forms of sanctity; but some can, and they should. Learning the Scriptures, worshipping God, and most of the other spiritual disciplines are necessary as well.

Now I don’t write this in order to encourage anyone to attempt to become a saint. Sometimes that might be appropriate, but not usually. Rather, I would like to draw attention to the amazing capacities of the human being under grace. Learning about people who have received the fullest measure of God’s Spirit can lift our eyes from the inanity of normal human existence to the great plateau of life with God. For any person who desires to follow Christ, meditating on the lives of great saints is one of the most helpful things that one can do. There are books written about all of the most prominent saints, and sometimes their closest followers have written down descriptions of how they lived and what they did. Little Flowers of St. Francis of Assisi and the Life of Antony are a good place to start. G.K Chesterton researched and wrote good books on both Francis and Thomas Aquinas.

The saints can display to us the wonders of Christ formed inside of the human being. Though we cannot always do exactly what they did, we can see how they responded to the good and bad things of life and what they did to train for life in God’s kingdom. This opens up the door to intend to be a little more like them, and to take even small measures in that direction. I would not recommend to anyone to go out into the desert or wilderness for twenty years, but we could all use an occasional day alone and a fast from a meal.

And I believe that those who trust in Christ and take on some of the character of love will find eventually in their lives hereafter that they will be given some of the power and experiences of the saints. It is God’s goal to develop human personality as much as possible. In any case, a vision of the greatness of Christ in the human soul is encouraging, strengthening, and delightful.