The Young Saints Inspire Us to Witness

We see many buzzwords being tossed around in Church circles. It is not necessary to toss them here. But one word always seems to stick into my head – witness.

Young Saints

During the lockdown, I had a lot of free time and spent much of it reading. I came across an article about a young boy who by October will be beatified. Young Carlos Acutis had touched many lives when he was alive and since his death in 2006 at the tender age of 15, it seems he is still doing so. HIs parents are still alive.

I do not know if this is the right word but I was a bit envious at first that such a simple life became much greater in the eyes of God. It only made me want to investigate further into the lives of many young and modern saints in the Church. A friend told me to read about Nicola Perin who did in 2015 and he also lived his life in the Eucharist but still had a full life.

According to Pope Francis in Gaudete et Exultate,

Far from being timid, morose, acerbic or melancholy, or putting on a dreary face, the saints are joyful and full of good humor. Though completely realistic, they radiate a positive and hopeful spirit.

I would read about these potential saints in various periodicals and thought to myself how remarkable life can be and although Nicola Perin is not a saint, there is interest in his life since he died a few years ago. Yes, they died too young, but they are doing so much for us now. The Church has tried to find saints or candidates for sainthood such as these among countless others. Maria Goretti, Pier Giorgio Frassati, and who knows how many others await on the horizon.

Sitting in the ‘new normal’ Church of masks and at 30% capacity with physical distance rules in force made me think about how we could evangelize and witness in the simplicity of quiet lives of saints. I have been to Liseux in France and the church which honours St. Kateri Tekakwitha and thought many times about such important lives that might not have been noticed at the time and how many lives we did not see or did not want to see in our lifetime.

How Do You Witness?

I am part of a lay movement and we discuss many topics each time we meet. Lately, we were talking about witnessing. How would one witness to others? I asked for understanding one time during a discussion with everyone. Watching people leave the Church or at least become indifferent to it, and with 20 people at a Sunday mass, I only got more discouraged.

Witness is such a big word for me. I thought back to where I once read about Paul VI when he told us, “Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses. Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it!” How do I do this in such a complicated world? I feel sometimes like a salmon swimming upstream and it would be easy to run out of gas.

However, those young saints, who lived their lives to the full, though short made an impact but without a project. I do not think they grew up thinking I will become a saint. They lived! Possibly, it is what we all can do.

Live For Christ

Despite the difficult period we live in now we can still live and there will be other “difficult” periods. We can be defeated, or we can continue to live our lives for Christ. It is not an automatic thing to simply say, “Oh, I live my life for Christ.” I would need something much more concrete. I admire the cloisters I have visited and how they live but I live in the world. I need to be present here and now.

Reading about these young saints who did not travel or could explore the world as many of us do these days (pre-pandemic) the one phrase that did come to my mind often is simplicity of heart. How could we touch the lives of people if we have these questions? It would appear, that daily mass and charitable work among a host of other projects become just that – projects if we do not understand the reasons why we do these things. It is my mind that is organizing these projects and I am not leaving it up to God. It is in His hands that we trust or, so I have been told. Life will unfold in front of us and we been to be aware with our eyes open to opportunities that might befall us.

The many young saints in the church and those on the road to sainthood all lived their lives without the notion of who they would touch. They lived their lives as maybe we need to (or at least I do) – with joy and fervor for life that hopefully will become contagious.

The Sisters in the Carmel cloister tell me often that Jesus is like a perfume, a fragrance that cannot be ignored but it attracts. However, not with my effort but the effort of Him who strengthens me. I have been trying to read the lives of the saints much more often each day.

A Challenge

The life of many saints is a challenge to us, a provocation if you will, and the Church has given us countless examples of people who have served God faithfully. Francis again said, “[The Lord] wants us to be saints and not to settle for a bland and mediocre existence.” Sometimes, I think, mediocrity has become the norm for many of us. I want to live by their example because we call them saints, but they most likely did not see themselves that way. They were looking at Christ as their anchor and well the rest, as they say, is history.