Thursday, the Fifth Week of Lent

   What is a saint?  Is a saint born or does one become a saint?  Can I be a saint?  These are questions we need to consider in our faith journey.  If we don’t understand sainthood we can never truly strive to become one.  And yes, we can become one.  In fact, that is God’s will for us.

   A saint is one who leads a life in union with God through the grace of Christ and has received eternal life.  Saints are in the presence of God in Heaven.

   Some saints have shown their spirituality and faith from a very early age, such as St. Faustina and others.  Some have become saints after many years of a very sinful life.  This is a fact that I take comfort in.  Even though we have lived an unsaintly life, we can turn to God, reform our life and become a saint.

   I look to Saint Augustine as an example of one who lived sinfully but became a saint.  St. Augustine lived a life of debauchery before his conversion.  He had lovers, an illegitimate son and was a heretic in the Manichean heresy.  However, St. Ambrose convinced Augustine of the truth of the Church and the error of his ways.  Augustine went on to become one the greatest of all saints and is honored as one of only thirty-six Doctors of the Church.

   Reading St. Augustine’s autobiography, “Confessions”, is a challenge but one well worth taking.  In it you will find the confessions of a man who very obviously recognized his failings prior to his conversion.  Augustine writes of praying to God for conversion but in his own time rather than God’s. “Oh Lord, give me chastity, but do not give it yet.”  Again, he prayed, “Oh Lord, help me to be pure, but not yet.

   After his conversion Augustine realized God’s desire for us.  “You made us for yourself O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

   God wants us to be saints as well.  He wants us to realize that we will never be truly at peace until we rest in Him.  We are all destined for sainthood if we will only allow Him to work His will in us.  It is a great and everlasting tragedy if we refuse to accept God’s desire for our sainthood.