"Saints, like all of us, are forgiven sinners. But saints have rejoiced in forgiveness and not been overwhelmed by sin. Many of them, frankly were ignorant, biased, broken and neurotic. That gives me hope."(R. Rohr "Radical Grace" p. 198)
For a Christian a saint is supposed to be a hero of the faith, a role model for living more fully into the relationship with God.
Often we acquaint sainthood with being perfect, never doing anything wrong. That of course would not be a saint that would make you Christ. A saint is a role model primarily by showing how to accept forgiveness, how not to let sin be the final definition of who you are.
A fuller look at most of the Saints lives will show flaws. Will reveal choices that seem contradictory to what we think a saint does. Yet there's that line in the great hymn about the saints "the saints of God are just folk like me, and I mean to be one true.
The message would seem to be that in spite of our brokenness, in spite of those times when we fail to commend the faith that is in us, we are given another chance, and another and another. At times this seems unjust, certainly from a human understanding it is. But from the perspective of God, our standards aren't so divine.
Blessings,
Ed
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F. Ed, Wonderfully stated. Have you ever heard of Brennan Manning? Former RC Priest turned writer..Famous for "Ragamuffin Gospel" and "Abbas Child" two of his greats. i have actually read im pretty sure all of his books to date. He talks a lot about the subject of beings Saints. One great chapter title in his book Ragamuffin Gospel is entitled "Tilted Halos" It was Blaise Pascal
ReplyDeletewho said “There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who believe they are sinners, the sinners who believe they are righteous.” with all that said, thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Harvey Cottrell