Being a Saint in the World
one
The excuse of being “In the world”
a. One of the most common excuses we give for not being saints is by acting as though sanctity is just for people in certain walks of life.
i. You hear it all the time. “Well, of course, I’m not a monk, or a nun, or a priest. Maybe those folks can afford to be saints – maybe they have the time to be saints. But I don’t.”
b. We say, “Well, we have to be balanced. We’re mothers and fathers and managers and employees, and we have a lot of responsibilities in the world. So we have to balance holiness with all the rest of the stuff we need to do.”
i. That’s not what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
1. Jesus told all His followers to be perfect as the Heavenly Father is perfect.
ii. And holiness isn’t one thing that you balance with other things. Holiness is the balance – it’s the balance that comes from sanctifying your whole life.
1. And remember – balance doesn’t mean comfort
a. A tightrope walker is balancing – and it’s difficult – it demands concentration and focus and practice.
2. So don’t use “balance” as an excuse to be lazy. If you’re a disciple of Jesus, you don’t get to be lazy about your faith. We are obliged to let it permeate our whole life.
a. That’s what it means to be a saint.
two
Examples of saints from all walks of life
a. So it’s a weak excuse to point to our worldly responsibilities as a justification for not pursuing greater holiness.
b. And what makes that all the more obvious is the way the Church has canonized saints from all walks of life
i. We have saints who are kings and queens, saints who were common laborers and tradesmen, saints who were soldiers, saints who were doctors, and, of course, saints who were parents.
c. People claim to be too busy with the responsibilities of their life to become a saint. Louis King of France made the time to become a saint.
i. He led France to its economic and political golden age.
ii. He reformed the French legal process
iii. He fought just wars – not from behind a desk but leading the charge into battle
iv. He negotiated peace treaties with waring nations
v. He was a devout husband who raised 11 children
vi. He had a deep life of prayer
vii. He fed the poor from his own table, waiting on them and eating the left overs once they were finished.
d. So it doesn’t work to act as though your state in life keeps you from being a saint. The witness of the Church proves that it doesn’t.
three
There’s nowhere where the Gospel doesn’t apply
a. We all have the temptation to find some part of our lives where we think the Gospel doesn’t need to factor in.
i. Then we can say that at least in that place, in that area we don’t have to worry about being saints.
b. But it’s not true. There’s no space, no room, no kind of life that should be walled off from the Lord.
i. To be an integrated Christian means that the different parts of your life are integrated in Christ
1. To have different parts of your life that are disconnected simply means you’re a Christian who lacks integrity.
c. So, you can’t lock Jesus out of your bank account, or out of your bedroom, or out of your voting booth, or out of your office, or out of your sports, or whatever.
i. A saint is someone who has allowed the Lord to transform every part of our life.
ii. And the first step is to ask God to come into every facet of your existence, every responsibility, every activity – especially those that you still are tempted to keep separated from Him.
four
Light and Salt
a. Jesus tells His followers that they are to be Salt and Light to the world:
You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its flavor, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. Instead, they set it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. (Matthew 5:13-15).
b. What’s the point of these images? Just this: the only reason God has put you in the world is so that you can save the world.
i. The world is broken, sad, lost, blind. And Christ has sent us into the world – the workplace, the voting booth, the economy, the schools, and especially our families.
ii. And if you’re not living the faith, then you’re not giving people the joyful flavor, the salt their joyless lives so desperately need.
iii. And you’re not giving them the light – you, who have been blessed with the truth of salvation – you’re just leaving people to wander, alone in the darkness.
five
The World Needs us to be Saints
a. So being in the world isn’t an excuse for not being a saint – it makes the need to live lives of radical holiness all the more urgent.
b. The un-Christian world needs us to be the best Christians we can be.
i. If we become lukewarm, mediocre Christians, we might get less pushback, we might have less conflict, but our spouses, children and friends will not convert.
ii. The Dominican theologian Sertillanges put it this way: “The only really powerful and really compelling force is strong conviction joined to a life of virtue… The very people who require you to court their favor despise a flatterer and surrender to a master. If you are of this world, this world will love you because you are its own; but its silent disdain will be the measure of your fall. This perverse world loves, at the bottom, only saints; this cowardly world dreams of heroes.”
c. It is so ironic, but those who persecute you, those who ignore you, those who refuse to convert and want no part of your religion – deep down – they don’t want you to give in, to be a mediocre Christian. They want you and need you to be a saint, a shining light - for you may be their only hope.
i. So pursue perfect holiness, above all out of love for Christ, and because - only then can we help the sadness and confusion of this world, and the people in our own families.
ii. They may not respond right away or ever – but they want you to be a saint and need you to.