Editorial

Let’s be next door saints, reflecting the light of Christ

A mother and her young son, Billy, stopped to pray in a church with many beautiful stained-glass windows. The boy kept interrupting his mother’s prayers, asking her who was pictured in this and that window. The mother would explain, “That’s St. Joseph.” “That’s St. Andrew.” “That’s St. Margaret Mary.”

The boy was silent for a few minutes, then he said, “I know what I want to be when I grow up. I want to be a saint.”

“Why, Billy?” the mother asked. “You don’t even know what a saint is.”

“I do so,” the boy said. “A saint is a person the sun shines through.”

Today we are celebrating the Solemnity of All Saints. We recognize that saints are the people that the light of Christ shines through. These are the holy men, women and children, living and deceased, whose lives give witness to the goodness of God.

Some have been officially designated as saints (canonized), but many more have not. Saints are all the people throughout human history who have sought the face of God and lived in accordance with God’s will.

“Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future,” wrote the 19th- century Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde. None of the saints, except Mary, was sinless. All were sinners who repented, sought God’s forgiveness and were transformed by grace. It is this transformation, this conversion of life, that shines through the lives of the saints and shows us the face of God.

Pope Francis calls our attention to the “next door saints.” These are the people whose humility, courage and faith shine brightly in spite of their suffering, poverty or ordinary troubles. These next door saints are not famous or distinguished in any way except for their goodness, their willingness to accept life on life’s terms (which are often unfair), their readiness to forgive others, and their simple desire to help those who are in need.

Everyone can point to at least one next door saint. It may be a grandmother or favorite aunt. It could also be a childhood friend who got mixed up with the wrong crowd, lost his way, and then returned home again like the Prodigal Son.

The parables of Jesus show us the many different faces of next door saints. Surely the Good Samaritan qualifies. So does the Roman centurion who said he was unworthy to have Jesus enter his home, yet believed in the Lord’s healing power. And, of course, the woman who washed the feet of Jesus with costly perfume and the “good thief” who was crucified next to Jesus, but who acknowledged his sinfulness and humbly asked to be admitted to paradise were next door saints.

All these—and many, many more next door saints—are celebrated today with great rejoicing. They remind us that we are all called to be saints and that, in spite of our unworthiness, there is nothing to prevent us from repenting, asking for God’s forgiveness, and then accepting the grace we need to change our lives and grow in holiness.

In his encyclical “Spes Salvi” (“Saved by Hope”) Pope Benedict XVI writes: “Life is a voyage on the sea of history, often dark and stormy, a voyage in which we watch for the stars that indicate the route. The true stars of our life are the people who have lived good lives” (#49). The saints are the light of hope, Pope Benedict says, because they point us to Jesus Christ, “the true light, the sun that has risen above all the shadows of history” (#49).

The Church has given us the examples of many canonized saints, and she urges us to learn more about them and to imitate them. They were living witnesses to the good news they proclaimed in Jesus’ name.

Some were very smart. Others had average, or below average, intelligence. Some were active missionary disciples who traveled extensively, founded diverse religious orders, schools, hospitals and charitable organizations. Others remained behind cloistered walls in convents or monasteries and devoted themselves to prayer and contemplation. Some saints lived to be quite elderly. Others died young. In them, the canonized saints of the Church, we can find models for our own lives—regardless of who we are or what our state of life is.

No matter what our past may be, all of us have a future. We are all sinners called to be saints. Let’s ask God for the grace to be next door saints, people who reflect the light of Christ in our daily lives.

—Daniel Conway