Actually, there are several saints who never committed mortal sins. The one the Church holds up as the Saints’ saint is Francis of Assisi, Padre Pio’s spiritual father and another is one Francis’ spritual sons, St. Maximilian Kolbe. Then we have some secular saints such as St. Maria Goretti, Aloyisius Gonzaga and Bl. Pierre Giorgio.
I believe the OP says it correctly when he says that saints, canonized or unknown, are people who make up their minds to be saints. Karl Rahner once used a term that applies very well here. He spoke of a fundamental option for Christ and in another of his writings he spoke of a leap of faith.
The leap of faith is certainly not a new concept. But Rahner put it this way. I’m paraphrasing, because I don’t have the book in front of me. The leap of faith is one that we take when we make a fundamental option for Christ, to live as Christ lived and as Christ commands, you have no other choice but to trust in his grace to keep you going.
This is where we sometimes fall apart. It has nothing to do with living in a cloister. As a matter of fact, Padre Pio was not a monk nor did he live in monastery as people say. Padre Pio was a friar and lived in a convent like all Capuchin Francican Friars do. Friars are in constant contact with the world. The difference between their life and that of the secular man or woman is that they live within a religious community. A religious community, it is fertile ground for sin. Living in close quarters with people who are not your biological family, with different backgrounds, of different ages, different interests, different abilities, different degrees of holiness and whom you did not choose to live with, but with whom you are assigned to live with whether you like them or not can be very difficult. You have to love these people more than you love your biological family, because this is the family that God has given you for the rest of your life. This love does not come without a price and without effort.
Obedience is not as easy as it sounds, especially if you disagree with the superior or you don’t like your superior very much. It can be very humbling when orders come from someone who is young enough to be your child or grandchild and you have to obey them as Chris obeyed, without murmuring, without self-pity, without questioning. You have to hear the voice of Christ in their words. This journey has plenty of room for sin.
This is where Rahner’s fundamental option comes in. Saints made their choice. They were going to be saints. They did not know how they were going to get there, but hey had faith that God would provide the graces.
You have great saints like Rita of Cassia, Louise de Marillac the foundress of the Daughters of Charity and Elizabeth Ann Seton. They were mothers and widows. They gave up everything to follow Christ. Their children shared in their detachment from material things, from friends, from their home, from their biological family to go where Christ called their mothers. These mothers often asked themselves whether it was fair to put their children through this kind of ascetical life. The answer that they always received from Christ was that he would provide. This was their leap in faith. They trusted that Christ would provide for their children and he did.
Elizabeth of Hungary was married. She was also a queen. She became a Secular Franciscan. The Rule of St. Francis said that she had to give up all attachment to material things. That she had to fulfill God’s call to be the perfect wife as Mary was to Joseph. She also had to find time for the Liturgy of the Hours, prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, silent prayer and time for her Francican brothers and sisters. Eventually, her husband died and Elizabeth moved out of the palace to live among the poor as Francis had done. She fulfilled the Rule of St. Francis and lived the Gospel. She lived a life of prayer, sacraments, silence, detachment from material things, and was a model family woman.
The point is that we can live the Gospel as Christ lived it. The canonized saints are the sign that we can.
In his Gospel St. John makes frequent use of the word “sign” to mean proof. The saints are proofs that the perfection of the Gospel is possible for everyone. We have to make a choice to be a saint and trust that God will provide what we need: material, emotional and spiritual.
Many of us have been convinced by the world to believe that we have to provide every possible security for our spouses and families. This is not true. The Church does not subscribe to this. We have to provide what our families need and what they have a right to have. We need not provide everything they want. There is a difference between need and want.
Sometimes a great deal of our time and energy is spent on working to provide for the wants of our families or for the things that society says our families need. One reason why we have a younger generation that is searching for God is because few younger people have ever experienced God. Every desire was provided for by their parents who often become obstacles between the young and God. Few young people have had to live with the words “NO” and “SACRIFICE”.
If you have little experience with detachment and with sacrifice, you usually have little experience with God. Why look for God when mom and dad are closer? What happens is that parents become gods to their children. When this happens, parents and children drift further and further away from sanctity.
True sanctity is a choice to live the journey of the Gospel one day at a time, believing that God will provide what we need at all levels of our human existence. It requires prayer, sacraments, community living, the Church, scripture, silence, penance, detachment, and charity, all offered to God in return for the grace of faith.
Fraternally,
JR
