How many of us have, at one time or another, looked in the mirror and seen a potential saint? I would venture to say that most of us have not for a myriad of reasons.
- Some of us may be so burdened with our imperfections, including the misconception that saints are perfect, that we could never possibly see ourselves as anything but sinners on the edge — nowhere in the same time zone as any saint.
- Some of us may see some saint material in that reflection, but, due to a combination of warped humility and distorted nobility, immediately declare such perceptions fanciful and foolish aspirations too easily misconstrued as arrogance or presumption.
- Lastly, many of us may simply look at our saint resume with the grimace of an employer wondering how a given job aspirant ever dared to apply for a job he or she has no qualifications to seek.
May I remind the first group above that saints have been anything but perfect, unless one thinks that hunting down hated Christians (Paul), denying one’s Lord three times (Peter), or failing at a multitude of endeavors (Bridget) qualifies as perfection. If one wants to find imperfection transforming into sanctity, one need only look as such examples as the relative ignorance of Bernadette, Augustine’s obsession with pleasure, the fact that St. Dismas was the so-called good thief who was crucified with Christ, or St. Mary of Egypt, former prostitute, to discover the fact that, above all, saints started out as imperfect sinners like the rest of us.
Beyond the imperfections of saints, there is the necessary distinction between humility and warped obsession with one’s imperfection. Given the fact that we are all imperfect sinners to one degree or the other, it does little good and, in fact, much harm for us to become so chained with self-perceived defects that we never allow ourselves to trust in God’s Divine Mercy and Divine Wisdom.
Saintly humility keeps one finger on imperfection and vulnerability to sin while trusting and aspiring for much more. Destructive obsessions with sinfulness or imperfection only serve to rob the individual from his or her potential to fully realize their role in God’s eternal purpose. The devil wants nothing more than for us to see ourselves as hopeless, and helpless, sinners with no hope and no possible path to sanctity!
As for the second group, I suggest that arrogance is delusional obsession with self and aspiring to sanctity has nothing to do with self since, in order to reach such a state, one must be willing and eager to love God and others so fully as to empty oneself in service and love.
It is not arrogant to aspire to become a saint, much less believe that one can become one. It is arrogance, however, to believe that one can become a saint on one’s terms or merit without the need for God’s help and guidance.
As for the last group cringing behind what they believe to be a pitiful resume for sanctity, I suggest that God’s measures are not our own, that God looks within to the heart, mind, and soul, and that sanctity may well be measured by the degree and nature by which we fulfill our purpose through the gifts God has given us in the service of God and others.
In other words, the man with a shot glass of ability, intellect, and talent may reach sanctity if he fills his shot glass to the brim in sincere love and service of God and others. Meanwhile, the man with a gallon tank of ability, intellect, and talent may never reach sanctity if he only bothers to fill it as needed to serve himself at the expense of God’s Word and Will, as well as the needs of others.
Pope Francis has often stated that we are all called be saints. In fact, he has stated that holiness is a gift offered to all, not only to those devoted to prayer, but rather to those who are receptive to the grace working in them to serve God and others.
Suddenly, the devil’s worst nightmare becomes clear. Namely, that he is trying to damn souls imbued with all the potential and ability for sanctity, if only they love God and others so sincerely and purely as to stop looking in the mirror for the solutions to their wants and needs.
At the end of the day, then, the answer to the question posed in the title above is that sanctity is never found in the mirror but, rather, in the heart, the mind, and the soul, and it is just waiting to be released within each of us out into a world so in need of all the sanctity it can get, if only we let love overcome self.
