Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson went out to camp once. Around midnight, Holmes woke Watson up: „Look at the stars and tell me, what do you deduce from this?“ Watson stared and replied: „I realize, for example, that there are many galaxies. And you, Holmes, what do you deduce from this beautiful view?“ „ I understood that someone stole our tent.“ Although someone took the tent from the two detectives, they saw the starry sky.
Something opposite happened to people of the 21st century, as if modern times’ “steal” starry sky prevented us from seeing people who deserve to be named stars for their extraordinary lives.
Benedict XVI shared one of his experiences: „ I had the opportunity to visit the papal observatory. I saw massive telescopes with which, until recently, learned fathers explored the sky’s secrets.
Today, it’s all just in the museum. Not that these instruments don’t work, but the lights in Rome are so intense that the stars can hardly be seen yet. Artificial lighting – man-made light covering the skylights in the sky. Because of our lighting, our lighting cannot see the stars of God.“
This fact can be perceived as an apt picture of today’s times. A lot is said and written about pop stars or superstars. For such stars, which are often antipatterns and have been artificially created by the media, we do not see real stars, that is, people who have moved the world forward, who have passed life tests on a unit, who risked their own lives for the sake of their neighbors.
We lose “view” to martyrs of love, justice, and faithfulness, to inconspicuous heroes, to people about whom the prophet Daniel wrote: „… they will be like stars forever and ever“ (Dan 12, 3).
You are made for flight.
The climber found an eagle egg in an abandoned nest among the rocks. He brought it home and put it under the hen. After a few weeks, an eagle cub hatched together with the chicks.
It thought it was a chicken, so it did everything like a chicken. It raked in the ground, looking for worms and beeping. But once it noticed a beautiful bird in the sky that flew majestically and watched it enthusiastically. „Who’s up there?“ it asked the hen with bated breath.
„That’s an eagle, the king of the sky, but don’t think about him. We are not like him,“ explained the hen. The eagle cub became sad and bowed its head. He didn’t know about the eagle anymore and lived in the yard with the chickens.
Wrong patterns can become a kind of spiritual anesthesiologist for us. They will cause malaise of spirit, put to sleep the desire for ideals, for the attainment of self-perfection, for spiritual heights, and lead us to false self-satisfaction, which is described by the statement: „ I’m not that bad because they are also worse.“
We threaten to forget our subconscious desire for God and settle for low life goals and the fleeting offer of this world.
The privileged models of holiness must be considered precisely those who have become saints themselves
Especially nowadays, it is necessary to actively look for inspiring role models who can motivate us to try to become saints. This is a basic vocation of a Christian, as Pope Francis reminded us with great emphasis in his exhortation Caudate et exculpate.
Privileged models of holiness must be considered precisely those who have become saints themselves, whether they are canonized (t. j. officially declared saints by the Pope) or not.
For them, it was not just a momentary enthusiasm for Christ but a lifelong decision. They show us the right way. Looking up at people living in spiritual heights can remind us that we are made to “let” and provoke us to exceed all limitations. Bright examples of great men and women of faith can revive an excellent desire for holiness in us.
Saint Bernard once said: „ I must confess that when I think of saints, I feel burned with great desires,“ and when Saint Augustine thought about saints, he sighed: „If so many and so many have done it, why not you too, Agustin?“
Psychologist Abraham Maslow says: „If you are looking for an answer to how tall a person can grow, it will be best to choose unusually tall people, and you will study them.
If you want an answer to how fast a person can run, then you will be useless if you examine an average human population sample.
A better way would be to choose and explore the Olympic champion. If we want to get to know the possibilities that a person has in the area of his spiritual growth, then the best way will be when we focus on the holiest among us.“
Exemplary person
Of course, on the way to holiness, we should not primarily follow the saints, but above all Christ. He alone is our role model and way to our Father’s house (comp. John 14, 6 – 7).
The church writer Tertullian referred to Christ as a pedagogue. Christ was born and gradually went through individual periods of life to teach us how to live human life holy or divinely. Thus, he became an „exemplary person.”
If we dared to oppose Tertullian, we might object. But after all, Christ only lived on earth for thirty-three years and could not be a professor, car mechanic, pensioner, mother, father, or priest at the same time… He could not show us an example of how to live holy in every stage of life, in every state and situation. And that is why Christ teaches us this through his faithful, who can declare with the apostle Paul: „ I no longer live, but Christ“ ( lives in metal 2, 20).
Louis Evely succinctly said, „ Jesus can experience all life states and situations through those who allow themselves to be transformed by him. They give him an infinite number of different human lives, so on their own body they complement what is missing from Christ’s suffering“ (comp. Col. 1, 24). As Milan Bubák reminds us, in the saints, Christ is, so to speak, transformed into small things.
Finding a saint who is most similar to us in nature and circumstances of life will be a great help. We can learn from him how to follow Christ and how to struggle successfully with problems.
Pope Francis recommends that we not limit ourselves only to the so-called canonized saints but also notice people „ from the neighboring entrance“<TAG1>, who, with God’s help, sought to practice the gospel in the mendacity of their lives.
We certainly had the opportunity to meet such saints in person. Maybe we had them in our family or among friends. „Saints from the neighboring entrance“ are closest to us in time and geography; therefore, we can more easily read from their lives how to become a saint in our times and our environment.
When following the life stories of great men and women of faith, we must avoid a similar danger. We must not succumb to the temptation „to write off“ their CVs, even with all the details. For that, the teacher of humanity—Jesus Christ—would certainly not praise us once, just like the Slovakian Janka.
We must realize that even the saints were only human and therefore had faults. In the exhortation Gaudete et exsultate, Pope Francis points out that the details of their lives can also include falls and mistakes, and not everything that a saint says must be completely faithful to the Gospel. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to the life of the saint as a whole and follow the entire pilgrimage of his sanctification (comp. GE 22).
Mechanical copying of even the most fantastic life stories is unacceptable because God created each of us as unique beings living in the 21st century. God expects us to develop our original abilities, which he has given us so that we can use them to answer one of today’s challenges.
Our vocation is “inscription” with our life, an original biography, to grow up as a saint who has never lived and will never live on this earth. The testimonies of great men and women of faith are meant to encourage, motivate, and inspire us, but they cannot be copied.
What the saints envy us
Raniero Cantalamessa says that perhaps the only thing saints envy us is time. It is time for them to love more, cleanse themselves more, and become more like the Lamb without blemish.
They don’t have this time anymore; we do yet, but we don’t know how long. Therefore, encouraged by their example and supported by their intercession, let us set out today on the path that leads to life.
The author of the Letter to the Hebrews encourages us to do so with the words: „ Therefore, we too, surrounded by such a cloud of witnesses, let us shed all the burden and sin that possesses us, and let us run persistently in the race, which we have in front of us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus“ (Heb 12, 1 – 2).
Questions to think about
Do I realize with due seriousness that my eternal happiness depends on attaining holiness? Am I not seeking pleasure in dealing with evil, scandals, or people’s life stories that demotivate me and lead to unhealthy justification of my mistakes?
How many men and women of faith do I know whose life stories fascinate me? I know such a saint who is close to me in nature and problems, and it can encourage me that I am not a „lost cause “or an inspiration in the search for strategies to overcome myself.
