saints

Yesterday was All Saints Day. What would be today, a day after
all saints? That’s sounds like the rapture,
that glorious day when sainthood is no more necessary.
Is it necessary today?
Yesterday I heard a great message by bishop Mouneer in Cairo.
He spoke about the difference between the Catholic and the
Anglican approach to sainthood.
He pointed out that in the Catholic tradition sainthood needs to be
earned by performance of miracles or other special virtues.
In the Anglican tradition saints are our brothers and sisters, the cloud
of witnesses.
I was encouraged by his thoughts of becoming a saint by receiving.
In Psalm 24:3 there’s a question about sainthood,
‘Who can stand in His holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart...”
Our hands are washed by receiving.
We are saints by grace.
This doesn’t steal our motivation to pursue holiness.
As I pondered over the message, I was encouraged by the finished work
of Christ. We don’t become saints by performing something,
but we end up performing something because we are saints.
This is the unfailing principle of bearing fruit.
Whatever you sow, you’ll reap. You cannot cheat in it. The resurrection
life is stronger and more absolute reality than any theory about life.
To accept this for ourselves is not as difficult as it is in relationship with
others. To accept one another’s sainthood takes a lot of faith.
The bishop used a story to comment on this.
In a monastery there were five old monks who were getting worried about
the future of the place. They didn’t see any new people who would be
interested in joining their community.
Daily they argued about the matter.
Finally they went to an old wise man to ask for an advice.
The old man simply said, ”One of you is Christ”.
That changed everything.
Their relationships changed into interactive holiness (this is my term, not the bishop’s).
We don’t know the end of the story.
Maybe they all left the monastery and started ministering to people.
We are called to see Christ in people,
in our friends, spouses, children, Turks, Jews, Egyptians, Azeris, Hungarians,
Americans, Russians, Swedes, Finns...
“Christ in us, the hope of glory” Colossians 1:27