Saints in the Making - Even at Work
Greetings saints in the making! Yes, that means you. We're all saints in the making - even at work.
With All Saints Day behind us, it's worth remembering this in the afterglow of that great feast day: We are all saints in the making - or at least we ought to be. As you prepare for work today, remember that. If you're reading this at work, remember it. If you're finished with your day's work, remember it. Always remember it.
When we say we want to sanctify our work, what's the point of that? It's simple. We sanctify our work to glorify God, which makes our work a means of our own sanctification, that is, our becoming saints. Again, we are saints in the making. And all that time at work isn't a diversion from our making as saints. Work, an integral part of our lives, so becomes an integral part of our struggle to become a saint. Every thought, word and action we take today at work should become another step on the way to sainthood. Really.
What? You haven't thought about becoming a saint lately? OK. But now that you've gone to Mass on All Saints Day and lifted your heart in prayer to the Church Triumphant - all those saints in Heaven whom we acknowledged in a special way last Friday, know this: They heard you. They now intercede for you, that God will provide you with the grace you need to become like them. So now it's time to get on with your own sainthood.
After all, it's the whole purpose of our lives. It's why we were created by our loving Father. It's why He sent His only begotten Son to be born amongst us in poverty and obscurity, to live in this world, just as we live in it now, giving us the perfect example of how to live, and, ultimately, why this Son of God - He who Himself is God - suffered and died on the Cross. All of it was so that you could become a saint, so that you could spend eternity in Heaven with God. That's why we must, MUST aim to be saints, each and every one of us.
The saints - those we honored on All Saints Day - were human, many with great character flaws they struggled with all their lives, some having led terribly sinful lives until their inner conversion. And we're talking about the few whom we know. We don't even know the multitudes who also enjoy the Beatific Vision over and above the few whom the Church has "officially" canonized. Maybe you've known some of them in your own life. Maybe some of your deceased relatives or friends are right now in His Holy Presence. We are as they were. And God, calling all of us to Him - which, again, means to be a saint and spend eternity with Him in Heaven - would not call us to sainthood without providing all the necessary graces we need. Remember this. Live your life with the confidence that the grace will be provided, all of it, if only we desire - really desire - to be saints. With that desire firmly in hand, greet this day of work determined, willing, desirous of sainthood. Ask the Church Triumphant for their intercessory prayers to help you along the way this day and every day. Then get to work and take the next step toward your sainthood, then the one after that.
All we need do is desire to be saints and then to take that first step and then the next. The results of our efforts aren't our concern right now. We can think about those results when we examine our conscience each day - those few quiet moments when we think about our thoughts, words and actions for this particular day. And after those few moments, and our sorrow for anything we might have done that is sinful, we get on again with taking those steps toward sainthood.
Have I provided a little boost to your desire sainthood with this little pep talk? I hope so. If not, just spend a moment or two and think about what else you could possibly desire that would be greater, more important than becoming a saint?
OK, time's up. There's nothing, right? Now put all other concerns aside. You're going to be a saint. We're all going to be saints, right?
Let's conclude our little meditation, basking as we are in the glow of graces of the great feast of All Saints, with this from St Therese of Lisieux:
With All Saints Day behind us, it's worth remembering this in the afterglow of that great feast day: We are all saints in the making - or at least we ought to be. As you prepare for work today, remember that. If you're reading this at work, remember it. If you're finished with your day's work, remember it. Always remember it.
When we say we want to sanctify our work, what's the point of that? It's simple. We sanctify our work to glorify God, which makes our work a means of our own sanctification, that is, our becoming saints. Again, we are saints in the making. And all that time at work isn't a diversion from our making as saints. Work, an integral part of our lives, so becomes an integral part of our struggle to become a saint. Every thought, word and action we take today at work should become another step on the way to sainthood. Really.
What? You haven't thought about becoming a saint lately? OK. But now that you've gone to Mass on All Saints Day and lifted your heart in prayer to the Church Triumphant - all those saints in Heaven whom we acknowledged in a special way last Friday, know this: They heard you. They now intercede for you, that God will provide you with the grace you need to become like them. So now it's time to get on with your own sainthood.
After all, it's the whole purpose of our lives. It's why we were created by our loving Father. It's why He sent His only begotten Son to be born amongst us in poverty and obscurity, to live in this world, just as we live in it now, giving us the perfect example of how to live, and, ultimately, why this Son of God - He who Himself is God - suffered and died on the Cross. All of it was so that you could become a saint, so that you could spend eternity in Heaven with God. That's why we must, MUST aim to be saints, each and every one of us.
The saints - those we honored on All Saints Day - were human, many with great character flaws they struggled with all their lives, some having led terribly sinful lives until their inner conversion. And we're talking about the few whom we know. We don't even know the multitudes who also enjoy the Beatific Vision over and above the few whom the Church has "officially" canonized. Maybe you've known some of them in your own life. Maybe some of your deceased relatives or friends are right now in His Holy Presence. We are as they were. And God, calling all of us to Him - which, again, means to be a saint and spend eternity with Him in Heaven - would not call us to sainthood without providing all the necessary graces we need. Remember this. Live your life with the confidence that the grace will be provided, all of it, if only we desire - really desire - to be saints. With that desire firmly in hand, greet this day of work determined, willing, desirous of sainthood. Ask the Church Triumphant for their intercessory prayers to help you along the way this day and every day. Then get to work and take the next step toward your sainthood, then the one after that.
All we need do is desire to be saints and then to take that first step and then the next. The results of our efforts aren't our concern right now. We can think about those results when we examine our conscience each day - those few quiet moments when we think about our thoughts, words and actions for this particular day. And after those few moments, and our sorrow for anything we might have done that is sinful, we get on again with taking those steps toward sainthood.
Have I provided a little boost to your desire sainthood with this little pep talk? I hope so. If not, just spend a moment or two and think about what else you could possibly desire that would be greater, more important than becoming a saint?
OK, time's up. There's nothing, right? Now put all other concerns aside. You're going to be a saint. We're all going to be saints, right?
Let's conclude our little meditation, basking as we are in the glow of graces of the great feast of All Saints, with this from St Therese of Lisieux:
"I have always desired to become a saint, but in comparing myself with the saints I have always felt that I am as far removed from them as a grain of sand trampled underfoot by the passer-by is from the mountain whose summit is lost in the clouds. Instead of feeling discouraged by such reflections, I concluded that God would not inspire a wish which could not be realized, and that in spite of my littleness I might aim at being a saint."
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