Solemnity of All Saints
You
all remember Julie Andrews of the Mary Poppins and Sound of Music fame. Well,
if there is truth to the claim that art imitates life, then that must be said
of Julie Andrews. She not only took on roles that were stereotypically sweet,
she was in real life, one of the sweetest persons in show business. Julie
Andrews gives off goody-two shoes vibes. It is as if she could do no
wrong. Her husband, Blake Edwards, was reputed to have described her as being
“so sweet she probably has violets between her legs.” I often wondered what
life must have been like for Blake Edwards, to live with such a beloved
woman. Some would have postulated that it must have been wonderful.
On the other hand, it must also have been difficult for Blake Edwards, as it’s
never easy to live with a saint.
If I were to say “Everyone
hates a saint!” Do you find this shocking and scandalous? But let’s be honest,
which of us enjoy living or working with a saint: those sanctimonious,
self-righteous, Pharisiacal, holier-than-thou individuals who strut their
sanctity and wear holiness like a badge, and who constantly reminds the rest of
us that we are wallowing in the mire of our sinfulness. No, in truth, no one
likes a saint. They tend to show up our faults more than anything else. If
being around a saint is tough, try becoming one. It’s often the quickest way to
lose popularity and one of the most efficient tickets that will get you killed.
It’s certainly tough being a
saint in today’s day and age. It’s so hard to stay “good” and do what you
believe to be right. As much as we often start of trying to live up to the call
of holiness, the company we keep inexorably drags us down into some unsaintly
activities or lifestyle. It seems to be a simple matter of survival if you wish
to fit in. It’s so much easier to act “bad” and behave like the rest of the
motley crew of sinners, reveling in their sinfulness and finding comfort that
we are “real.” Without a doubt, there is no denying that it's a tough time
to be a Catholic today and to live up to your Catholic values. It’s so much
easier to hide your religion, to hide your “sanctity.” Who wishes to be derided
by that ad hominem remark, “Don’t try
to be so holy?” or be called “Holey Moley” or be accused of being
“holier-than-thou.” The new normal is “bad.” Holy and good people are just
unrealistic anomalies.
Saintliness
is the subject of derision because the larger traditional concept of a hero has
suffered a greater blow in recent times due to popular culture. A saint is
supposed to be an example of heroic faith. The problem is that it is no longer
novel to be just a hero – the story of the gallant and noble hero who rescues
the maiden in distress. This is just too boring for a world that craves for
innovation and the unfamiliar. Therefore, we are beginning to see emerging in
cinematography, literature and music, a glorification of the bad, the demonic
and the villainous, which were originally seen as the antithesis of heroism.
Thus the anti-hero has been canonised in songs like Michael Jackson’s, “I’m
Bad, I’m Bad”, vampires in the racy TV series True Blood, Casper in the
cartoons, the demonic Hell Boy, witches and wizards in the Harry Porter series.
When the lines are blurred, one can’t tell the difference anymore between good
and bad, saint and sinner. In fact, it has become quite popular to vilify the
saint and canonise the sinner.
But
while we all might have to suffer insults, we should indeed rejoice. It's a
great time to be a Christian, because this is a time in which God really needs
us to show off his true face. Jesus says in the beatitudes we heard today, especially
in the last one, “Happy are you when people abuse you and persecute you and
speak all kinds of calumny against you on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for
your reward will be great in heaven.” I've been experiencing that beatitude
first hand, when I made a conscious decision to don my black clerical garb. It
was not just the stares that I often get when walking with my cassock in public
but also the snide remarks and concerned advice from laity and fellow priests
who thought that I had fallen off my rocker. It ranges from the more innocent,
“have you just returned from a funeral,” to the curious inquiry, “is it not
hot?” to the more caustic, “trying to be different ah?” The subtext of the last comment is that I fit perfectly
into that stereotype of Pharisees who wear their sanctity on their shoulders,
with protruding phylacteries and long tassels.
Yes,
in the past, it was regarded a good thing to be holy and good. It’s not any
more. In today’s world, holiness comes across and sanctimonious self-righteousness,
and generally a tumour that has to be excised from the rest of the community,
if the latter is to survive.
The
Catholic Church’s celebration of the feast day of saints, its continued
practice and tradition of canonising ordinary men and women as saints,
certainly goes against the tide of this prevalent trend. As opposed to the
world, the Church is making this loud claim, “we love our saints!” Almost every
day of the liturgical year is dedicated to a saint. In other words, during an
entire liturgical year, the Church provides us with so many heroic examples of
faith and holiness. We don’t seem to have enough of them. Pope Saint John Paul
II, during his pontificate, had canonised more saints than all his
predecessors. When asked why he did so, his reply was this: “In a world that is
faithless, we need more models of faith. In a world that is hopeless, we need
examples of hope. In a world that is so full of violence and death, we need
shining beacons of peace.” In other words, by venerating and honouring the
saints, the Catholic Church re-establishes the perennial norm for humanity – it
isn’t about being bad but about being holy. Saints are supposed to be the norm,
not the anomalies.
That’s who saints really are – they show all of us, not only Christians, what
it means to be fully human. St Ireaneus says, “The glory of God is man fully
alive, but man fully alive is man glorifying God.” But unlike the humanised
version of a hero or the recent abomination of the anti-hero, these Christian
heroes are mirrors which allow us to see the goodness, the greatness and the
love of God. They give a face to the invisible God.
Saints are not superhuman beings. They are not angelic beings who have gotten
rid of their humanity. No. The saints are fully human just like you and me. The
saints are heroic because their lives demonstrate that they are fully grounded
in their own humanness. They are fully human because they are in touch with
human pain and suffering. They undergo pain and suffering and yet emerge
victorious because they have not allowed despair to overtake them. They are
living proof of the beatitudes: “How happy are the poor in spirit, theirs is
the kingdom of heaven … Happy those who mourn: they shall be comforted …Happy
those who are persecuted in the cause of right: theirs is the kingdom of
heaven.”
One
of the greatest Catholic preachers in American history, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen,
the father of TV evangelisation long before the Protestant evangelicals
discovered this medium, used to say, that he preferred to live in times when
the Church has suffered rather than thrived, when the Church had to struggle,
when the Church had to go against the culture. It was a time for real men and
real women to stand up and be counted. “Even dead bodies can float downstream,”
he used to say, “but it takes a real man, a real woman, to swim against the
current.” This is a time in which all of us need to focus ever more on
holiness. We're called to be saints and how much our society here needs to see
this beautiful, radiant face of the Church. This is one of those times. It's a
great time to be a Christian. It is wonderful time to be Catholic. It is a
necessary time to be a Saint. And in any
event, living with a saint beats living with an idiot.
