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There are certain characteristics which belong to all saints, whoever
they were and whenever they lived. Among these characteristics are the
following:
—Every
saint is God-centered and seeks in his or her life the “one thing
needful”—to glorify God by doing His will.
—Every
saint is Christ-centered and seeks to pattern his or her life after
the life of Jesus; following Him, keeping His commandments and
imitating His example.
—Every
saint is Spirit-centered, knowing and living by the fact that it is
only by the Holy Spirit that any person can do anything that is good,
true and beautiful in his life.
—Every
saint is Other-centered, giving up his or her own life for the sake of
the life of others, rejoicing in the good of others as the only
satisfaction and fulfillment in life.
—Every
saint accepts and loves his or her own person and posItion in life,
sanctifying and fulfilling it according to the real possibilities that
are given. The servant serves. The worker works. The parent nurtures.
The ruler rules. The preacher preaches. The teacher teaches. The
pastor guides. The scholar inquires. The student studies. The manager
manages. The scientist investigates. The producer produces. The artist
creates. Each one does his own thing, according to his or her own
talents and gifts . . . for the glory of God and the good of the
other.
—Every
saint lives in the present moment, in his or her own time and place.
The saint never pines over the past or worries about the future. The
saint never wishes to be somewhere else, in some other conditions,
with some other people. The saint never wishes to be somebody else. He
trusts God in all things and does what has to be done and can be done
in the given circumstances. The saint knows that whatever it is that
has to be done, it can only be done right now . . . for only the
present is in the power of the person, and nothing else.
—Every
saint pays attention to details and does the smallest, seemingly most
insignificant act with the greatest love and devotion. For the saint,
no act is too small, no work too trifling, no task too demeaning, no
deed too insignificant. Every little thing, for the saint, has eternal
value and importance. Every little thing Is done before God and has
meaning and fulfillment In Him.
—Every
saint pays attention to persons . . . and not to structures,
institutions, parties, programs or roles. For the saint only the
person counts, and everything else Is subordinated and ordered to the
good of the person. The saint is never impersonal. He never loves or
serves “humanity in general.” He only loves and serves the person
near at hand, the neighbor given by God—the most difficult and most
divine manner of acting that there is.
—Every
saint loves the whole of God’s good creation, not only living
persons, but animals, plants and all that positively exists. The saint
never blasphemes God’s good world, but rejoices in the beauties of
creation to the glory of their Creator.
—Every
saint Is an utter realist. There is no sentimentality in the saint, no
partial views, no prejudicial opinions, no petty interests. There may
be real passions and fanatically impassioned actions. There may be
factual one-sidedness and fierce conviction, but it is always in the
light of the total reality of God and man, and It Is always for the
good of all. The saint is not self-indulgent in his sanctity. He is
not a “spiritual glutton.”
—Every
saint suffers—with joy and gladness—for others. The saint does not
“come down from his cross.” He loves his cross as the way to his
resurrection. He loves his death to himself as the way to his life in
God. He loves to put himself down, and be put down, if it means that
someone else will be saved and exalted. The saint is not a masochist.
He does not love sufferings and pains for their own sake. But he is a
realist who knows that what is lasting and good requires the payment
of a great price, and he is willing to pay the price in his own blood.
When one does good in the sinful world, he suffers. It is as simple as
that. And the saint does good.
—Every
saint hates sin, in himself and others, but he loves the sinner,
including his own “self,” as created in the image and likeness of
God, and as loved and saved by God in Christ. The saint knows himself
to be the “greatest of sinners.” It Is his very sanctity which
gives him this knowledge. And as God, he loves men in their sins and
does them good as the expression of his love.
—Every
saint recognizes the devil and the power of evil, and he fights them
to his last breath, in himself and others. The saint never justifies
sin and he gives no place to the rationalization of evil. Evil is to
be vanquished, not explained. The devil is to be destroyed, not
discussed. And the proof of a person’s sanctity is seen in the
intensity with which the devil attacks him, and in the power with
which the devil is overcome.
—Every
saint fasts and prays and lives fully in the life of the Church. It is
in this way that he or she is a saint: empowered with grace,
enlightened with wisdom, inspired with love and enlivened with the
life of God that has no end.
—Every
saint—whoever he or she is—has learned to transform the routine of
his small, limited, human, mundane, earthly existence into the
paradise of the Kingdom of God.
According
to the scriptures, we are all “called to be saints.” (Romans 1:7)
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