Journeying: Nov 01 - Nobody is born a Superhero or Saint?

“Lord, this is the company of those who seek your face.” - They are those who entered heaven. They are those Jesus called "blessed." Today we celebrate them - they are the Saints. So how did they get to heaven?

After a long illness a woman died and arrived at the Gates of Heaven. While she was waiting for St. Peter to greet her, she peeked through the Gates. She saw inside a beautiful banquet table. Sitting around it were her parents and all the other people whom she had loved and who died before her. When St. Peter came by, the woman said to him, “This is such a wonderful place! How do I get in?” “You will have to spell a word,” St. Peter told her. “Which word?” the woman asked. “LOVE,” St. Peter said. The woman correctly spelled the word “LOVE” and St. Peter welcomed her into heaven. And she noticed, St Peter did the same with all those who followed her in line.

About six month later St. Peter came to the woman and asked her to watch the Gates of Heaven for him that day. Now, while the woman was guarding the Gates of Heaven, her husband arrived there. “I'm surprised to see you here,” the woman said, “How have you been?” Her husband told her: “Oh! I have been doing pretty well since you died. I married the beautiful nurse who took care of you while you were ill. And then I won a lottery. I sold the little house you and I lived in for many years, and bought a big mansion. And my wife and I traveled all around the world. We were on vacation and went water skiing today. I fell, the ski hit my head and here I am.” Then he asked her, “How do I get in?” “You will have to spell a word,” the woman told him. “Which word?” her husband asked. She replied, “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”

So how do we enter the gates of heaven? We have to become saints. Just remember no one is born one, we have to become one.

Last night was Halloween and among the costumes I like are that of the Superheroes. Especially the one with S - Superman or Supergirl? For me S is for Saints. They’re the real superheroes. But there are two kinds of superheroes, those like Superman, the Flash, Supergirl who have inborn superpowers, and there are those like Batman, or the Green Arrow who do not have any but they use their courage, intelligence, and will to become one.

You see with superpowers or none, they all have to choose to become a superhero. There are those who have superpowers and yet they chose to become supervillains. Superheroes choose to defend the poor, the oppressed and those in distress. Nobody is born a superhero, you have to become one.

As with superheroes so it is with the saints. Nobody is born a saint. You have to become one. But father, you might ask, some saints have healing powers like the Just League of Apostles. Others can bilocate like Padre Pio, San Isidro, St Alphonsus, or control animals like St Francis of Assisi, St Martin de Porres... still others can levitate like Joseph of Cupertino, we can't be like them. Consider St. Margaret of Cortona. As a teenager, she was the mistress of a young nobleman. She lived with him for nine years, even had a son with him, hoping at some point her lover would marry her. He never did. When the husband was murdered, the shock caused Margaret to re-evaluate her life. She went on to take vows as a Franciscan. Her son also joined the order. She was canonized in 1728.

Nobody is born a saint. You have to become. There was this Vladimir of Kiev in Russia had hundreds of concubines, multiple wives from around the world, so many children that everyone lost count, and an army of pagans. He was a pretty mean guy. From the start of his reign in 980, he conquered lands, slaughtered people, and partied hard. In 983, after another of his military successes, Prince Vladimir and his army thought it necessary to sacrifice human lives to the gods. A lot was cast and it fell on a youth, Ioann by name, the son of a Christian, Fyodor. His father stood firmly against his son being sacrificed to the idols. He cried out: ‘Your gods are just plain wood: here today, gone tomorrow; whereas there is only one God — and He created heaven and earth. And your gods? They created nothing but terror and destruction!’” This speech made Vladimir to reflect on all he had done. He converted and brought many missionaries to Russia. He is now St Vladimir the great, patron saint of Russia.

Nobody is born a saint. You have to become one. In the 1920s, the least likely candidate for sainthood would probably have been an anarchist and communist from Brooklyn named Dorothy Day. She worked as a journalist and spent many nights drinking with famous writers like Hart Crane and Eugene O’Neill. She had an abortion, and a broken marriage, before finally being drawn to Christ, and the gospel, and converting to Catholicism. Her conversion led her to embark on a radical ministry to the poor, one that is still changing the world. She’s now a candidate for sainthood.

Saints are closer to us than we may realize. They have struggled with sin and temptation, they’ve walked the journey toward holiness, sometimes stumbling, sometimes falling, but always getting back up and moving on, resolving to do better, to be better, to aim higher. Saints after all are sinners who kept on trying.

They worked to be what this gospel is calling us to be. To be poor in spirit. To be meek. To be merciful. To make peace. This is how we begin to become what Jesus calls “blessed,” and this is what the Church calls saints. It’s a tall order. And it is nothing less than a call to greatness. But this feast day reminds us, whether we realize it or not: it can be ours. This kind of greatness is within our grasp.

All the saints. They give us hope. Because they assure us again and again: no one is born a saint. But every one of us, by the grace of God, can become one. As St John has told us today: “Beloved we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. But we who hope in God strive to purify ourselves just like He is pure. So that at the end, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.”