commentary
tvc.dsj.org | November 29, 2016
15
Making a Difference: The World Needs Saints
By Tony Magliano
Internationally syndicated social justice
and peace columnist
Most likely you are reading this shortly before, or
shortly after the U.S. presidential election.
America’s next leader will have the means at hand
to do tremendous good or tremendous harm.
The new president-elect of the United States will
have many opportunities to purposefully move forward policies and legislation that can make not only
the U.S., but the world a far better place.
Or the next president can dangerously choose to
greatly exacerbate the many serious problems facing humanity.
Our prayers and political activism will be needed
to persuade the fledgling president to reject all that
is deadly, and instead choose the way of goodness,
the way of life, the way of God (see Dt. 30:15-18).
But we should not place all of our marbles in the
one basket of the U.S. president.
No single human being alone – president, prime
minister or pope – can build a world where justice,
peace and love reign. Such a vision realized, needs
all of us; and not just a mediocre version of ourselves,
but rather the best version of ourselves.
The world needs saints!
Our hurting world needs Christians who are
committed to being the very body of Christ on
earth – saints.
As Saint Teresa of Avila said so beautifully,
“Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet
on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which
he looks [with] compassion on this world. Yours are
feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the
hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours
are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes,
you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth
but yours.”
“Christ has no body now but yours.
No hands, no feet on earth but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which
he looks [with] compassion on this
world. Yours are feet with which
he walks to do good. Yours are the
hands through which he blesses all
the world. Yours are the hands, yours
are the feet, yours are the eyes, you
are his body. Christ has no body now
on earth but yours.”
-Saint Teresa of Avila
Imagine if you and I, and every person who professes to be a Christian, decided with the power of
the Holy Spirit, to be the body of Christ. Imagine if
Saint Catherine of Alexandria
Catherine is thought to have been born to a noble family in Alexandria, Egypt. Through a vision, this scholarly
young woman converted to Christianity and began evangelizing others, including the wife of the pagan emperor
who was persecuting Christians. According to legend,
after she defied the emperor and refuted philosophers
brought in to test her faith, she was imprisoned and
tortured. She was put on a rotating spiked wheel; when
it broke, she was beheaded. She is venerated as the Great
Martyr St. Catherine in the Orthodox tradition and her
voice was among those heard by St. Joan of Arc. She is
the patron saint of wheelwrights, and also a patron of
jurists, philosophers, students and teachers.
- Catholic News Service
every disciple of Christ decided to think, feel, pray,
speak and act as Christ did when he walked the earth.
Just imagine what good could be realized if every
Christian would commit to becoming a saint.
Pope John Paul I – the saintly smiling pope – said,
“If all the sons and daughters of the Church would
know how to be tireless missionaries of the Gospel, a
new flowering of holiness and renewal would spring
up in this world that thirsts for love and for truth.”
Just days ago the Catholic Church celebrated All
Saints Day to remember all the countless faithful
disciples of Christ who now and forever bask in the
glorious, loving presence the Almighty Holy One.
Through the intercession and example of the
saints, may we be given the faith, love and courage
to imitate their holiness. For Jesus is calling every
single Christian to become a saint.
In the Second Vatican Counsel’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Nos. 39, 40) the world’s
Catholic bishops solemnly declared “In the church,
everyone … is called to holiness.”
Franciscan Media will send you an inspiring biography of a saint each day. Sign up at
www.franciscanmedia.org/newsletters/.
May we more fully realize that becoming holy –
becoming a saint – is not meant for our good alone,
but for the good of the whole world.
Saints spend their lives loving God by loving all
others – especially those who are suffering in body
and/or soul.
By actively practicing the Spiritual and Corporal
Works of Mercy (http://bit.ly/2fF2Ivj) we become
the hands, the feet and the eyes of Christ on earth.
We become saints!