YOUNG IN FAITH, By Kiri Groeneveld
DO you ever find yourself reading the paper, watching the news, scrolling through the updates and scanning over the tweets, all the while thinking to yourself, “People should really try to be a bit more … ‘saintish’”.
I mean, honestly. I really believe the world could do with a bit more “saintism.” A hearty amount of “saintishness.” Just more of those people who do the stuff they do because of their love for Jesus.
Don’t you agree?
Wouldn’t it be a comfort to think that while political candidates fling tightly-structured insults at each other, that there was a modern St Thomas Aquinas sitting at a desk somewhere, writing the next Summa Theologica.
Almost in spite of his incredible intellect, he would deny public glory and teach the world through his devotion to both faith and reason.
Can’t you just imagine if along with the ram raids and robberies that seem to occur on a weekly, if not daily basis, there was a little St Therese of Lisieux. Just a young person who chooses not to surround herself with materials and possessions, but rather enjoy the simplicities life has to offer.
I mean, a 15-year-old girl who regards sharing a smile more important than the judgement of the person she is smiling at? Phenomenal.
And while husbands abandon wives and wives cheat on husbands and both neglect the children they brought into this world, please, for just a moment, consider the existence of another St Joseph. A practical and hardworking man who consistently remains honourable and loyal to his family.
Can you imagine the next generation of St Ignatius’ and St Francis’ giving us the next Jesuits and Franciscans?
Come to think of it, let’s take a second to be grateful for the Jesuits and Franciscans.
Even the almost saints who lived among us not that long ago can provide a “sainticity” from which we should all take a leaf.
You don’t think the world would welcome a planet of more Blessed Pope John Paul II and Blessed Oscar Romeros? We should all be so lucky.
Come on, let’s get a bit more “saintimation” going on. Do a St Anthony and help someone recover a lost item. Or a St Valentine and spread a little love.
Be more like St George and slay dragons. Follow St Nicholas and give out presents. Or be more St Peter, who simply rocked.
People could really be a bit more saintish. But the truth is, they are. All saints were people first. People just as flawed and frustrated and challenged as we are today.
This was never as true to me as when I travelled to Rome for the canonisation of our own St Mary of the Cross MacKillop.
Mary’s own trip to Rome was one of the hardest and most trying times of her life, and in the short time I was there I frequently stood where she stood – along with the innumerable other saints who visited the city in their own time.
It was this pilgrimage that taught me the importance of a personal relationship with God and the true meaning of the suffering Jesus endured for us.
I learned all this from that hard, strong, kind woman from Fitzroy. She was a real woman, a real Australian, who cried, bled, laughed, loved and prayed. And there are people like her out in the world today. You see them.
They are in the schools, taking the time to teach the children who struggle the most with learning. They are in communities, separating the donated food and clothing into piles for the less fortunate. They are in the churches, arriving early and leaving late so that everything from the Blessed Sacrament to the tea and coffee afterwards is ready for Mass.
So you may follow St Christopher, St Joan of Arc, St Bartholomew, St Patrick, St Rafaela Maria, St Wisdom, St Bob, St Kenny, or St Genesius of Rome – the patron saint of comedians.
No matter which sainthoodity you follow, try and see them in the people on earth, and let them inspire you, just as the saints do.
