Month: October 2025

Everyday Saints

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On the eve of the Feast of All Saints (All Hallows’ Eve = Halloween), it seems good to consider who are recognized as saints and why. Also to go deeper into what holiness is – a quality often associated with saintly people.

The formal process the Catholic Church uses to decide who is a saint has evolved over time. Originally saints were simply proclaimed by popular acclamation. People recognized that this or that person had lived a very good, faithful life. Now the process is much more complex, and fraught with potential problems. There’s a whole office at the Vatican dedicated to identifying who is a saint. But it takes years, with investigations that may or may not be biased, and those proposing people as saintly spend very much money to see the process through. 

Deceased founders of religious orders and movements have the backing of their members, both through prayer and finances. Others seem to go to the head of the line because someone very high in the church has a strong preference that they become saints to serve as models for what that official considers to be holy today. The point is, it’s not always personal holiness that determines who enters the ranks of  acknowledged sainthood, and human motivation can, and does, factor in.

Léon Bloy, a French novelist, has this quote in one of his works: “The only real sadness, the only true failure, the only great tragedy in life is not to become a saint.” This certainly sounds as if Bloy imagined that sanctity and sainthood were within reach, not some impossible ideal meant only for a few, elite spiritual champions. Life lived in relationship with God, and focused outward toward those around us, offers the possibility of becoming saintly. All who live their lives with a bigger purpose and awareness of the needs of others have the necessary elements for sainthood.

Way back in 1949, a German priest and pastoral theologian, Josef Goldbrunner, wrote a little book entitled, Holiness is Wholeness. These two words share the same linguistic roots. Holiness, then, is not about doing all kinds of “holy activities” – practices that can be counted, calculated, or quantified by numbers or by time.  Holiness is realized by us becoming wholly who God desires us to be. This happens in a very natural way through being loved and by loving.

What is wholeness? It can be described as living wholeheartedly, growing into who we have been fashioned to be by the circumstances of our lives. A whole, therefore holy, person is interiorly free, responsible (able to respond rather than to react), aware of reality, and loving. Of course, God is behind all this, inspiring and inviting us to become more and more fully who God sees us, knows us, to be. 

The model for Christians is Jesus. He lived and grew, as we do. Jesus made choices that little by little led him to becoming so open to God that God was able to do great good through him. His entire life was a revelation of God with us, and among us. Jesus lived wholly. He didn’t allow himself to get sidetracked on other paths, or with less essential interpretations of the Law. Jesus kept his focus on God and kept discerning God’s desire for him on each step of his earthly journey. 

Sure, we don’t always get it right. But we can, and need to, become saints – people led by the Spirit of God to grow day by day in love, through love. Holiness is never about striving to achieve perfection. Perfection is a both impossible for us, and a temptation – an unachievable ideal that distracts us from loving God, others, and ourselves.

God only wants us to be who we are, as best we can right now. With all the voices (inner and outer) judging and persuading us, it takes heroic effort to simply be attentive to growing moment by moment in love. And love is the hallmark of holiness, and of all saints, well-known or hidden.

When a Spiritual Practice Loses its Way

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A majority of people have some kind of practice that feeds, strengthens, heals or comforts them interiorly as they try to navigate the often stormy waters of life. These practices may vary greatly, but the persons engaged in them find them beneficial. They find peace, a sense of centeredness, inner freedom or clarity. Not everyone would name their practice “spiritual,” and others might find the practices that some people take on a form of superstition. The goal of spiritual practice is to become freer, more fully alive, more loving, and for Christians, to put on the mind and heart of Jesus – living in whatever way we can as Jesus did.

For the one who intentionally seeks to grow and to deepen spiritually, who desires a felt experience or connection with the One who is greater, there are many paths and many disciplines that can be fruitful. God is infinitely creative, so the spiritual journey of each one will have a unique quality to it. Trying to mimic or copy another’s spiritual practice often leads to a dead-end. There is no user’s manual or recipe card to guide us to get a spiritual practice right. 

This is where we might run into problems. When our practice becomes our focus, we can lose our way. The practice, whether of prayer, mindfulness, charity, self-denial or some other penance, can become a substitute for opening ourselves more fully to God. We invest so much time and energy in practicing and attempting to do the spiritual practice or practices correctly that this effort consumes us. When we feel we haven’t done it perfectly, we might either become discouraged, or we might just engage ourselves even more intensely. Neither of these options leads us to peace or to growth in our relationships with God and others. All of these, probably well-meaning attempts, distract us and can turn us in on ourselves.

The Spirit of God, unencumbered by our fears and ego, can behave quite wildly. For some God’s Spirit can seem almost shy; for others God may appear very insistent – depending on our personalities. God treats each one as an individual and only desires what is truly good for each and for all. We are moved by God’s Spirit toward fullness of life.

As with every dimension of living spiritually, choosing, modifying and / or maintaining a spiritual practice is best supported by exercising the gift of discernment. We discern in order to learn how to see and to choose as God desires. Jesus is a model for a discerning life. He somehow managed to keep his attention and awareness on Abba-God, on God’s presence, and on Abba’s preferences for him throughout a busy and, at times, tumultuous ministry. The fruit of life directed through continual discernment is to develop a heart that is open, open to God, and with God, open to everyone, no exceptions. We come to see and to love inclusively.

With this discerning mindset we can better recognize which practice or practices are aiding us on our journey, whether it’s time to adapt how we are practicing, when it’s time to let go of, or to add a practice. Left to our own inclinations, there is the danger that our ego will impose itself  between us and God. Spiritual practices are gifts from God. They can  help us to learn, deepen and grow. As with everything, let God take the lead.

 

Reign of God – part 3

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Because the Reign of God is at the heart of Jesus’ message, it seems worthwhile to focus on this reality a bit more. Many, if not most, of the parables Jesus told are his wide-ranging attempt to describe the indescribable – of what does God’s reign consist, what is it’s dynamic, how might we recognize God’s reign at work among us. Jesus does this by making comparisons. “The Reign of God is like…”

Whether it’s seeds, or a wheat field sabotaged by an enemy, a treasure, a dragnet, a magnificent pearl or yeast, Jesus is sowing the idea that God’s reign, even as it may seem “too little,” has an internal energy, is worth everything we have, and requires our full cooperation. The Reign of God is unstoppable, and at the same time, it depends on us. We may imagine that we have lost something extremely precious, but if we go out of our way to look, it can be found. This may be costly to us personally, but our efforts will bear fruit in both little and big ways.

It isn’t too strong to say that Jesus was driven by the breaking in of God’s reign to our world. The broken, wounded state of humanity, and of all creation, which leaves a path of destruction, pain and suffering – like the track of a tornado – moved Jesus to both compassion and to a clear sense of urgency. His acts of healing and forgiveness were intended to enflame others to recognize God at work  and join his efforts.

Jesus understood that if we did not radically change our habitual individual and tribal self-centeredness the suffering and devastation would multiply. Only by seeing that we are all part of the same, single human family can we open ourselves to sharing what we have, including the beautiful gifts God has entrusted us with. God excludes no one from the divine love. We are called to do likewise. 

The time is now. The place is right where we are. Either we will open our world to God’s reign or we will surrender humanity and creation to forces of indifference, violence, violation, and arrogant ignorance. The Reign of God is quietly at work trying to mitigate, reverse, and replace evils with good.

The greatest threat to God’s reign is our apathy. Apathy can be expressed by a lack of energy to do what is in front of us to do. Or it can be the smothering of what God desires with our becoming very busy doing what we think or feel God would want, or what others tell us is the right thing to do. After all, we know! We become no longer able to feel connection, compassion, or to discern. This can lead to self-righteousness, judging, and replacing action on behalf of others with a whole array of pious acts.  

We can bring about, and build up the Reign of God by living as Jesus lived. He dedicated himself totally to love through acts of healing, liberating, forgiving, comforting, including and empowering others. God’s Spirit is waiting to enliven us and transform us. We only need to open our minds and hearts and spirits to God.

Reign of God – part 2

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 There can be some confusion about the “when” and the “where” of the Reign of God. The gospels indicate that, with the coming of Jesus, God’s Reign enters into human history. But it seems obvious, from the presence of so much that is contrary to God in our world, that the Reign of God is still incomplete. Scholars call this the “already / not yet” dimension of God’s Reign. 

A possible source of confusion about where God’s Reign is might come from the fact that the Reign of God has different designations in the gospels. The Gospels of Mark and of Luke, written for different Gentile-Christian communities, have Jesus proclaim the in-breaking of the Reign (Kingdom) of God. John’s gospel doesn’t even mention God’s Reign. Instead it points us to the “life without limits (to the full, eternal life, abundant life) that Jesus offers.” While the Gospel of Matthew, written for a Jewish-Christian community struggling to understand how to follow Jesus and the Law of God spelled out in the Torah, has Jesus proclaim the Reign (Kingdom) of Heaven. 

Over the centuries, the Israelites had developed a very strong reverence for the name of God. Pious children of Israel wouldn’t even think or dare to utter God’s most holy Name. God is so far above and beyond us that we cannot possibly capture God in a name or a title. God revealed the mysterious divine Name to Moses at the burning bush, “I AM”, “I am the One Who Alone IS”, “I am present and active among you”, “I AM WHO I AM.” (Exodus 3:14) The writer of Matthew’s gospel wouldn’t consider using God’s name in connection with the divine reign.

People considered heaven to be God’s throne, from which distant, un-scaleable height God rules. To refer to the Kingdom of Heaven can lead people to imagine that God only reigns somewhere beyond our broken world, after our lifetimes. Or after Jesus comes again, when everything will be renewed. But that’s not what Jesus said. “The Reign of God is here, now.” But there is work to do to build this reign, to bring it more fully among us.

Jesus wasn’t abandoned by Abba-God, and Jesus didn’t abandon us. The Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit is alive and well, working 24/7/365 to inspire people everywhere toward goodness, wholeness, unity, wellbeing for all. This is Jesus’ gift to us. The transforming action of the Spirit is moving whoever is open and desires what is better for humanity, and for all creation. It’s up to us to embody this spirit of goodness to continue the process of giving birth to the Reign of God.

If we are like Moses, desiring to see the “promised land,” the fullness of the Reign of God, in our own lifetime, we will be frustrated, and may become bitter and cynical. God’s Reign is not our goal. God’s Reign is not a goal. The Reign of God is the action of God’s Spirit within and among us. Our part is to be faithful, open, receptive and responsive to whatever the Spirit of God moves us to say, to do, to be.