There it is, you've no sooner recovered from the admirable Uganda Police Band than you're in church conjuring with the Saints, the innumerable multitude of the holy who stand before God's throne in the exultant liturgy of heaven. As through a door or window opened up into paradise, we see them in the book of Revelation:
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!"
Behold the glory of the beatific vision, and with it we're reminded that sanctity is our common vocation, we're all called to be saints, but how? By imitating Christ, patterning our lives after the pattern of Christ's life, and our Savior reveals his character to us in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12).
Blessed are the poor in spirit, the humble. This is Jesus who "humbled himself taking the form of a servant and became obedient even unto death." Blessed are those who mourn, and Christ does precisely that, he grieves for the sin of the world and its deadly effect. Think on the two awful and piercing words at the death of Lazarus, "Jesus wept." Blessed are the meek or gentle? Such is Jesus, a gentle man as opposed to an arrogant, aggressive, boastful man, "Come to me for I am gentle and lowly in heart."
Again, "Zeal for your house has consumed me." Our Lord hungers and thirsts for righteousness as he drives the moneylenders out of the Temple. And mercy? "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone," and he doesn't, though qualified to do so. Instead, the sinless man, in utter purity, brings peace to the world, uniting fallen humanity to the Father on the cross where he dies for the forgiveness of our sins.
Humility, compassion, gentleness, righteousness, mercy, purity and peace, the character of Christ and the path of holiness which Jesus invites us to walk. Those who do become saints, indwelt, purified and redeemed by the Holy One of Israel.
Can it be done? Yes. The Saints, from righteous Abel through the Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, and Martyrs, up to the holy men and women of today show us that sanctity, by the grace of God, is very real. Christ invites us to follow him so that we may attain it and the crown of glory which fadeth not away.
God bless,
LSP
