Sunday,
November 7, 1999
Rev. James A. Todhunter
" Who Are the
Saints?"
Psalm 149:1,4-5
Revelation 14:13
Matthew 5:1-12
I don’t know of any term that is more misunderstood or abused than the word saint. What is a saint? I will share three stories* this morning that illuminate for me who saints are. But first, let me tell you what saints are not. Saints are not, in essence, any different from you or me. Saints are not of some higher order of goodness that sets them above or apart from us. Saints are not creatures who inhabit some space between earth and heaven. The capacity for being a saint forever exists in each of us right alongside the capacity for being a sinner. Most of us will be both during our lifetimes. If we regard someone as a saint and we end up feeling unworthy of measuring up to their high standard, then we have missed the point. A true saint always puts us in touch with our capacity for saintliness even as we are made aware of how far short we fall. Here’s the first story.
There once lived a man so godly that even the angels rejoiced at the sight of him. But, in spite of his great holiness, he had no notion that he was holy. He just went about his humdrum tasks, diffusing goodness the way flowers unself-consciously diffuse their fragrance and streetlights their glow.
His holiness lay in this – that he forgot each person’s past and looked at them as they were now, and he looked beyond each person’s appearance to the very center of their being, where they were innocent and blameless and too ignorant to know what they were doing. Thus he loved and forgave everyone he met –and he saw nothing extraordinary in this, for it was the result of his way of looking at people.
One day an angel said to him, "I have been sent to you by God. Ask for anything you wish and it will be given to you. Would you wish to have the gift of healing?"
"No," said the man, "I’d rather God did the healing."
"Would you want to bring sinners back to the path of righteousness?"
"No," he said, "it is not for me to touch human hearts. That is the work of angels."
"Would you like to be such a model of virtue that people will be drawn to imitate you?"
"No," said the saint, "for that would make me the center of attention."
"What then do you wish for?" asked the angel.
"The grace of God," was the man’s reply. "Having that, I have all I desire."
"No, you must ask for some miracle," said the angel, "or one will be forced upon you."
"Well, then I shall ask for this: let good be done through me without my being aware of it."
So it was decreed that the holy man’s shadow would be endowed with healing properties whenever it fell behind him. So everywhere his shadow fell – provided he had his back to it – the sick were healed the land became fertile, fountains sprang to life, and color returned to the faces of those who were weighed down by life’s sorrow.
But the saint knew nothing of this because the attention of people was so centered on the shadow that they forgot about the man. And so his wish that good be done through him and he forgotten was abundantly fulfilled.
Saints do not see themselves are saints. Saints hate being the center of attention. If you are feeling especially saintly about something you have done, you probably are not a saint. If you are not feeling particularly saintly, you actually may be one. But not necessarily. Sainthood is not about inflating the ego, but emptying the self. That is, recognizing that we are basically containers. That is what the self really is. No more, no less. A container that can receive the Holy. This is the second story:
When the Egyptian deserts were the abode of those holy men called the Fathers of the Desert, a woman suffering from a terrible disease went in search of one of them, a certain Abba Longinus, for the man had the reputation of a saint and a healer.
Now as the woman was walking along by the sea, she came upon Longinus himself, collecting firewood, and said, "Holy Father, could you tell me where the servant of God called Abba Longinus lives?"
Longinus said, "Why are you looking for that old fraud? Do not go to see him, for he will only do you harm. What’s your trouble?"
She told him what it was. He thereupon gave her his blessing and sent her on her way, saying, "Go now, and God will surely make you well again. Longinus would have been of no help to you at all."
So the woman went away, confident in the faith that she had been healed – which she was, before the month was over – and she died many years later, quite unaware that it was Longinus who had healed her.
This story illuminates the fact that the power a saint possesses is not her or his power, but the power of God. Jesus understood this perfectly well. He continually resisted the idea that he was a magical healer who possessed extraordinary powers. Two things he always said. "Your faith has made you well." And "Go and tell no one what happened to you." We all have authority hang-ups. We tend to want to attach ourselves to people we regard as special, so that some of their wonders will rub off on us. We see saints as religious celebrities. Unfortunately the world is full of people who want, even need, to be adored and worshipped. The degree that we need saints to adore is a measure of our personal need to grow up. A third story:
A family of five were enjoying their day at the beach. The children were bathing in the ocean and making castles in the sand when in the distance a little old lady appeared. Her gray hair was blowing in the wind and her clothes were dirty and ragged. She was muttering something to herself as she picked up things from the beach and put them into a bag.
The parents called the children to their side and told them to stay away from the old lady. As she passed by, bending down every now and then to pick things up, she smiled at the family. But her greeting wasn’t returned.
Many weeks later they learned that the little old lady had made it her lifelong crusade to pick up bits of glass from the beach so children wouldn’t cut their feet.
Saints are frequently at the margins of society, or of an organization. True saints are doing things that make a difference. But these saints are frequently overlooked, misunderstood, under-appreciated, sometimes even reviled. In Jesus’ Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount, he provides us with a litany of blessed states of being. Notice that they do not include such things as great popularity, many followers, power and influence, or best-selling books. Jesus said, "Woe to you when all men speak well of you." The true saints are those who may be poor in spirit, reviled for the sake of righteousness, in trouble for peace making, often in mourning for the world, and so forth. True saints are rarely in the spotlight of acclaim. Instead, the busy themselves with tasks that may seem beside the point.
To conclude, I would like to return to an image from the first story I told; the saint as a flower which unself-consciously diffuses its fragrance. Imagine walking along a country lane, and there, on the other side of a white picket fence is a lovely rose bush. Each blossom is like a saint, enriching all the senses with its beauty. Some roses face the passer-by who is tempted to stop and enjoy the moment. Other roses are on the far side of the bush, gracing the yard of the owner. And still, there are other blossoms, buried deep within the bush; some that might never be seen, even though they bloom with the same beauty. And yet these hidden blossoms are just as lovely, and their fragrance spreads just as far. The hidden saints are like them, and their beauty is all the more precious for its hiddenness. Amen.
READING OF THE NAMES OF THE DEPARTED SAINTS OF THIS YEAR
*Stories are from Taking Flight by Anthony de Mello
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