Day 24 Are you called to be a saint?

Day 24.  So Thomas continues to work on his PhD and starts to write a novel.  He spends the summer in upstate New York with 2 of his close friends busy writing away.  His novel was called The Labyrinth. He sent it to several publishers and it was rejected.  He has a great line about that:

...to my great sorrow never got printed--at least I was sorry about it in those days, but now I am full of self-congratulation at the fact that those pages escaped the press.  pg 240

I thought that was humorous.

One of his friends [Lax, who is Jewish] asks him what he wants to be?  Thomas replies that he wants to be a good catholic.  His friend challenges him and says, "What you should say is that you want to be a saint."  Thomas says that he can't be a saint.  He isn't good enough.  But Lax said:

No. All that is necessary to be a saint is to want to be one.  Don't you believe that God will make you what He created you to be, if you will consent to let Him do it?  All you have to do is desire it."  pg 238

Wow, this really blew me away. And Thomas isn't even the one saying it.   It makes perfect sense if we don't limit our definition of "saint" to someone canonized by the Church.  I think "saint" here is anyone who lives a truly holy, spiritual life. Someone who allows themselves to trust God and is drawn into Himself like we talked about 2 days ago.  This person might do the "holy grind" day in and day out but do it for God so joyfully and trustingly that they are a saint.  Given the above definition, I think we are all called to sainthood.  I find that scary because I like to think of saints as holy people, people with infinite patience and grace who had it all figured out.  That way they aren't like me and I don't have to aspire to their level.  If it is just a matter of my will and trust then I rapidly run out of excuses.  How about you?  Are you called to be a saint?

My prayer today; Lord, I want to become what You created me to be but it is scary.  Give me courage to follow You more closely and to trust Your path for me.

Pax

 

Joe