We can become leaven in every sphere of society. By being dynamic from within, creative spirituality transforms the world by osmosis.

Recently, when asked to define himself, Pope Francis, who is addressed by all as ‘His Holiness’, said he sees himself as a sinner. As we celebrated the feast of All Saints, we realise we are all called for sainthood but there is a tension that pulls us in different directions. But the more we realise what sainthood is, the less we resist it.

In Christianity, sainthood always implies our humanity. The words of St Ireneaus, “the glory of God is someone who is fully alive” resonate with us today: sainthood is seen in the lifestyle of people who in simplicity, friendship, transparency, honesty, and integrity, live a blessed and beautiful life.

A saint is someone who does not live for himself: a person who can move from the self-centred narcissistic self and adopts an attitude of empathy towards those around him. For us, holiness means wholeness, as sainthood leads to transformation and radiation of God’s compassion.

Like God, we are called to embrace people beyond race, gender, sexual orientation and ideology and open our hearts in an attitude of receptivity and hospitality. God comes to us as we open the eyes of our hearts and welcome others, as Abraham and Rahab the harlot did in Scripture.

Sainthood also implies an attitude of praise. Life is a gift, not a possession. This attitude can open our heart for forgiveness and appreciation of all created reality. Only when we are convinced that everything is a gift can we offer our lives and our forgiveness as a gift to others.

A saint is someone who is not bitter. The saint can absorb hatred, violence, anger and injustice and not give it back. This is the heart of the Christian mystery of salvation: someone who saved us by absorbing and containing evil without transmitting it back.

Sainthood implies a fundamental choice to make God the centre of our lives. A saint is someone who knows himself, including his weaknesses. By acknowledging our limits we free ourselves to love others in their weakness, struggles and vulnerability.

Sainthood implies freedom and choice. Christianity stands on the affirmation that God can do everything, except compel people to love. It is true that God is almighty, but yet His omnipotence is fulfilled in total weakness as He allows others to exist in their freedom. This is a basic fact for Christianity.

Oliver Clement writes: “God cannot do anything in the world except through hearts that open freely to Him, and when hearts open to Him, He acts like an inrush of light, of peace and of love. He can never act from the outside, like a dictator or like a hurricane.”

Sainthood is when the freedom of God meets our freedom. We can become leaven in every sphere of society when, free from the power to impress, we illuminate the world not by having exterior influence but by being dynamic from within, creative spirituality gradually transforms the world by osmosis.

Sainthood implies communion not only with God but also with others and with the saints in heaven. No one can become a saint for his own sake or by his own merits. The letter to the Hebrews speaks of “a cloud of witnesses”, and we believe in the communion of saints.

We become saints when we pray, when our lives move from the practical to the mystical. A Christian life by its nature is nurtured by personal prayer and by liturgy. When we are in communion we experience the profoundest part of our faith as an encounter with Christ and his people. Holiness needs to be nurtured by a liturgical life, which when truly lived, transmits the mystery of the Resurrection and speaks to the heart. In the liturgy, the Christian discovers his real identity hidden in God. We are like a chain: each one is indispensible and only when the smallest link is securely interlocked is the chain unbreakable.

We are sinners called to be saints, to bear the burden of our brothers and sisters, and to open our lives to the freedom of the Gospel of truth.

ciliamartin@hotmail.com

Fr Martin Cilia is a member of the Missionary Society of St Paul.