[From that moment in September 1884 when the penniless 28 year old Matt Talbot felt humiliated (“cut to the heart”) by his drinking friends’ refusal to buy him a drink at O'Meara's pub, Matt turned all his efforts (for the remaining 41 years of his life) to increasing his union with God and developing his life of prayer.]
Becoming A Saint In One Easy Step
Jonathan Doyle
June 8, 2013
http://beingcatholic.com.au/becoming-a-saint-in-one-easy-step/
...One day (St) Thomas Aquinas’ sister asked him a very simple but very important question. “How do you become a saint?” He paused, looked at her and said quietly, “Will it!”
For a man who wrote the Suma Theologiae this was a rather economic answer but an incredibly powerful one nonetheless.
The Problem With Saints.
A big problem for all of us as Catholics is that when we think of saints we often think of hair shirts, flagellation or near starvation on some foreign mission. We need to realise this is a massive error.
There are a few important things about saints we need to know. First, we can ALL become one. No really. I’m not joking.
Second, what is a saint? Best I can tell a saint is just a person who somewhere along the line decided that God was utterly central to their existence and then pursued that relationship in whatever form it took. Think of Francis, Ignatius, Therese of Lisieux, Mother Theresa. They all had some form of extraordinary encounter and then followed that encounter where it led for the rest of their lives and become both transformed and transformative of their world. They never really set out to be saints, though Ignatius was pretty motivated to have a crack when he read the lives of the saints after the battle of Pamplona.
The Communion of Sinners
Another crucial thing about saints is that many of them, though by no means all, were raving fornicators and pagans at some point. St. Augustine and Thomas Merton, along with others, fathered illegitimate children, Ignatius was a solider and may have killed people, Dorothy Day (who may be canonised soon) had an abortion and several partners as part of New York’s bohemian set in the 1930′s. Matthew Talbot was a chronic alcoholic, and on it goes.What this means is that you and I have to surrender this idea that somehow we will never be saints unless we start acting like extras from The Sound of Music or The Flying Nun.
Two Simple Things
First, this will sound crazy but you are made for sainthood. In the classroom, in the home, on the bus, at the pub, each moment offers you the chance to encounter God a little more deeply – if you ‘will it’.God made you for His friendship and that is what sainthood is, friendship with God as the form and foundation of your daily life. If that part happens you won’t be able to stop the process of loving people and changing the world in whatever small way he calls you to.
Second, let’s go back to Thomas Aquinas. We just need to ‘will it’. We just need to cultivate a deep daily desire to encounter God. The rest will take care of itself.