To Be A Saint 

   “Have no fear about your inabilities, because it is the grace of God which will make a saint of you.”  (Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, “The Road to Hope: A Gospel from Prison”) 

   Many think it is impossible for them to become saints.  They say they aren’t holy enough and never could be.  They are right; we cannot become saints by our own efforts.  It can only be done by the grace of God.

   God wishes all of us to be saints, to be made holy that we might spend eternity with Him.  But God gave us free will and even He will not violate that free will.  We must choose to become a saint.  If we agree and sincerely desire sainthood God will make saints of us.  As odd as it sounds, we must give God permission to make us holy.

   No one is born a saint.  Many people look to the saints and what they have done in awe, seeing only what they became, not where they started.  Many saints led very sinful lives for many years before turning to God and offering themselves to His will.

   Think of the apostles.  They were ordinary uneducated men, certainly not what one would consider saints.  But they met Jesus and followed Him.  In giving their lives to God through Jesus, they became saints.  The same thing has happened over and over throughout history.  When people offer themselves to God, He makes them holy, He makes them saints.

   When the angel Gabriel told the Blessed Mother that she would conceive and bear the Son of God, she asked how that could happen since she was a virgin.  He answered, “The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” (Luke 1: 35).  If we want to become a saint we must answer as she did, “May it be done to me according to your word.” (Luke 1: 38). 

Lord I am not worthy.

I am a sinful man.

I ask of You, make me holy.

Make me a saint. 

Amen