meditation of the day
True Devotion to the Saints
Some identify devotion to the saints exclusively with the custom of praying to vaguely outlined semi-idols of medieval times. They think of the saints as fanatics and religious freaks, with no relevance whatsoever to contemporary problems in the real world. Quite the contrary, anyone who reads the lives of the saints carefully will discover that these people are heroes of love, persons who really did love God with their whole hearts. Therefore, they were able to respond with love to groups of people in their own times whom everyone despised: slaves, lepers, criminals, terminal cancer patients, street urchins, and so on.
Among the striking elements in the lives of the saints are the intensity of their love of Christ, the degree of sacrifice in their lives, their deep exalted mystical joy, and their consequent untiring love of neighbor. If we were to meet a couple whose love retained the intensity of the honeymoon period for their whole lives, we would be amazed and delighted. We would not consider them to be fanatics. On the other hand, if a woman who said she was in love would decide to love her husband a little, but not too much, we would not praise her for her common sense so much as we would question the depth of her love. What, then, would we think of a person whose religious commitment is summed up in the words, “Sure, I’m religious, but not too much!”
[A saint is] like one who has fallen in love and can think of nothing else but his beloved. Unlike most of us who move from this high state to a gradually lesser degree of fervor, the love of a saint moves upward in a constant crescendo. This is obviously what Christ desired when he said, I have come to light a fire on the earth. How I wish the blaze were ignited! He wanted his love to come into us like a burning flame so that we could radiate light and warmth unceasingly to a world grown dark and cold…. Catholic veneration of the saints is rooted in this loving reverence we accord to those who have allowed themselves to be transformed by Christ’s love. The saints are the embodiments of grace triumphing over the forces of mediocrity and evil within the spirit of man. They show the possibility of holiness, becoming models to imitate in our own lives, and inspirations to light up the darkness which surrounds us all. When we study their lives, we take courage in the knowledge that other human beings succeeded in loving even though they had to face external difficulties and internal obstacles similar to our own.
Ronda Chervin
Ronda Chervin is a convert from Judaism, professor of philosophy and theology, and author of over fifty books. / From Church of Love. © Ronda Chervin. Published by Liguori Publications, Liguori, Missouri, 1973. All rights reserved.