I'M NO SAINT

“Well, I’m no saint . . .”

Here’s the bad news/good news about that saying:

You are NOT getting into heaven UNLESS you are a saint.

Purgatory is not a second chance for Catholics.  At death you are hopefully going to heaven because the alternative is just hell.  But for most on the path to heaven, there will be a cleansing of our un-heavenly desires.  WHATEVER THIS IS (and it is not exactly clear) that is what purgatory is.

Here’s the good news: Despite what most people think and what our statues might depict, saints are not perfect people.  They are human beings.  From Peter, to Jerome, to John Paul II, saints are people who erred in many aspects of their lives, were in ample need of the sacrament of confession and like Saint Paul said, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.  And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.  As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.  For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.  For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.  Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.”  Romans 7:15-20.

The difference between saints and non-saints?  Saints are faithful.  Do you want to begin to understand what it is to be faithful?  Think of the most faithful friend you ever had - or what you would like in a most faithful friend.  Then start by being that to God and you are well on your way to sainthood.

SO AM I CRAZY?

I am an absolute party pooper this year.  

I would not have liked me last year.

It started when I went on a walk.  (I am on retreat this week and enjoy taking walks around the area.)  Everybody is decorated for Halloween.  Some of the decoration are just fun and silly.  Many are quite gruesome.  Scary monsters and tormented souls are everywhere.  It’s the pained ghouls in chains that make me sad.  SAD.  I think about it being a representation of a soul that is so mired in it’s sin that it is just plain “lost.”  And not lost as in it doesn’t know it is New York, but lost as in here is a soul not getting into heaven.  

I know.  Crazy.  Right?

So where are the saints?  Where is the faith as proudly shown off to the public?  To balance those who have no embarrassment establishing a tacky plastic graveyard in their front yard, why doesn’t someone have saints on their roofs showing them victoriously entering into heaven?  Maybe the could have a good fire going in the fireplace to provide smoke so that it looks like they are entering into the heavens.

Ghouls, perhaps, are politically correct.  Saints are not.

Also, ghosts and giant spiders do not require anything of us (except perhaps a scream.)  Saints mean something.  They stand for something.  And in their visage we see a challenge back to us that reminds us that there is a real choice join them on the roof or to join the skeletal arm reaching out of the ground beneath a styrofoam headstone in the front yard.  THAT is SCARY.

SPECIAL FRIDAY NIGHT EDITION!

HAPPY ALL HALLOW'S EVE!

Here is the Halloween special of Making Fiends!

And here is the Halloween Making Fiends Game!

Enjoy!

FOR ALL YOU DO, THIS SAINT'S FOR YOU

A denomination is really pushing an open door policy. T.V. and radio adds, signs on the church buildings all proclaim that they are open to all. A very nice Catholic sentiment, catholic meaning universal, the Church for all times, all people, and all places.

A deeper look however shows that it means something quite a bit different. A good portion of their airtime is spent reciting a list of things that they do not care about. They don’t care what you are wearing, what your marital status is, how you are practicing your particular orientation, what nation you are from, in fact, they don’t seem to care very much about anything. One wonders if they care if you show up.

Who does Jesus become in this scenario? A nice God/man who could not break out of the social constructs of His time. Fortunately He entrusted His Church to people who could get with the times and correct His teaching, which, by the by, just so happens to correspond to modern social morays. By fortunate coincidence that means we have to change very little to follow God. We get together for a collective slap on the back from God once a week (hopefully), feel good about ourselves, and learn that the only real sin is to have judgment.

This is religion reduced to the therapeutic. Does God love you for who and where you are? Yes. Of course He does. But He does not intend to leave you there. He has greater plans for you. He wants to transform you into the best version of yourself you can be. That does not mean giving you some false sense of self-esteem so you can feel good about dong whatever you want but by cooperating with the grace that He gives you through His sacraments, His teachings, His Church, and His call to an authentic freedom, community, and way of living and becoming something greater than yourself and your own concerns to be a beacon for others.

That is the glory of this Feast of All Saints! That we see ordinary people from all walks of life and from every condition imaginable not seeking a God who will accept whatever bone they wish to throw Him but rising to the call of the Divine, to being transformed and breaking out of themselves, to be what He made us to be.

Don’t forget, today is a holy day of obligation.