Desire to be a Saint.

This is the transcript to my talk last week. I realize it's mostly quotes.

“The “door of faith” (Acts 14:27) is always open for us, ushering us into the life of communion with God and offering entry into his Church. It is possible to cross that threshold when the word of God is proclaimed and the heart allows itself to be shaped by transforming grace. To enter through that door is to set out on a journey that lasts a lifetime. It begins with baptism (cf. Rom 6:4), through which we can address God as Father, and it ends with the passage through death to eternal life, fruit of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, whose will it was, by the gift of the Holy Spirit, to draw those who believe in him into his own glory (cf. Jn 17:22). To profess faith in the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – is to believe in one God who is Love (cf. 1 Jn 4:8): the Father, who in the fullness of time sent his Son for our salvation; Jesus Christ, who in the mystery of his death and resurrection redeemed the world; the Holy Spirit, who leads the Church across the centuries as we await the Lord’s glorious return.”
Pope Benedict XVI, Porta Fidei

I would like to highlight a particular sentence out of that paragraph “To enter through that door is to set out on a journey that lasts a lifetime.” In hindsight the real ignition for my own journey of faith happened at funerals. I remember in 2001 my grandfather died. My grandfather had a long career in the Air Force. Having his roots in Viscount, Saskatchewan he eventually settled in South-western Ontario.  From the memories I had of my Grandfather, he had a simple, yet consistent and unrelenting Catholic faith. It was at the foot of St. Joseph’s Church in Clinton, Ontario, while I helped hold up my grandfathers coffin, that I realized that somehow the fruits of my Grandfathers life and the fruits of the Church were the same thing.

In 2002 after I attended WYD in Toronto, I came home afterwards and received a phone call. It was news that one of my fellow class mates was driving home late one night, fell asleep behind the wheel, and went head on into a tree just five minutes away from my house. I didn’t know Ashton well but I soon learned that he was a devoted Christian who attended the local Pentecostal church. This experience was much more difficult for people to take in with him being so young. However God can use tragedy and turn it into opportunity. This was the first time I entered their Church and soon after I had a community to rely on and be formed by. I owe them a debt of gratitude for the role they played in my faith formation.

On February 2^nd, 2008 there was my friend Paul. Paul Sanders was a young man hopelessly, recklessly, passionately devoted to Jesus Christ. He embraced seven traditions that would be the founding pillars to a relationship that would know no bounds. For anyone who knew Paul, if you were to take him outside of the context of the Church, his life would not make sense. He wished to adopt a saintly life. I remember when anyone would trip, bang their hear, embarrass themselves he would for sure respond with “LUCKY!” because he knew suffering advances holiness. One day the frozen lake his van was on gave way, and both Paul and a classmate of his descended into the icy waters. Fr. Paul Nicholas gave these words at Paul’s funeral mass.

“St. Luke tells us, that on the first day of the week, toward evening, two disciples set out from Jerusalem to a town called Emmaus. They were discussing what had happened to the beloved Master and Teacher. Bereft of consolation, grief-stricken, downcast, they refused to believe the women who had ran excitedly from His tomb with a message of glory and resurrection. Wallowing in sorrow … they could endure no more talk, they had to walk. An Unknown Traveler drew up beside them, gently coaxed out the reason for their sorrow, and listened to their pain. The unnamed disciples summarized it best … “we had hoped …”
Fr. Paul Nicholson, Homily for the Funeral Mass for Paul Sanders

C.S. Lewis describes God as “The Great Iconoclast”. He says that a sign of His presence is when our solidified and concrete ideas of who God is and how He works are smashed. We’re not called to have typical, average, monotonous lives. We are Catholics; each and every one of you is called, in one form or another, to be a Saint. Fr. Paul went on to say:

“I am consoled by the events of the gospel that seem to come to life before my eyes. I seem to recall a day many years ago when the Divine Master standing by the Lake of Galilee, looked with love upon Simon-Peter and his brother Andrew who were in their boats, mending their nets. They heard his simple call, “Follow me” and they left everything and followed Him. He said to James and John in their boat with their father Zebedee, “Come and Follow Me”, and they left everything and followed Him.

Our brother Paul has heard that call in his heart all his life long. He sought to answer it in being a good and loving son, of being a loyal and true friend and by being a witness and defender in the preciousness of human life. He hungered to know more about Christ and his Church so he could love Christ and the Church more. All the while a restlessness was in his heart … “Here I am Lord, what do you want of me?” Paul’s answer was not given [in] the ceremony of ordination. Instead, it happened with a complete and definitive yes to the Nuptial invitation of the Divine Master, on a lake, on February 2, 2008.

I am convinced that Paul’s mission in the glorified Risen Saviour is now beginning. In a day when young people crave heroes and role models, Our Lord has given us a new one. His sudden and tragic death has catapulted him from relative obscurity to unintentional notoriety. Our Lord is using the tragic circumstances of Paul’s death and has constructed a pulpit from which Paul may now preach a sermon that shall never grow stale or tiresome. And pray tell, what will he say? Forgive me, brother Paul, for taking such liberties but I believe you say to each of us today: the greatest adventure in life is the search for God, and that to serve Him is the soul’s greatest delight.”
Fr. Paul Nicholson, Homily for the Funeral Mass for Paul Sanders

Due to pride, I don’t think I could have admitted it while he was alive, but now I can surely say that I would not be here in Manitoba unless Paul hadn’t attended the CSE. I can truly say that lately I’ve been looking to his example that I wish to emulate. Today while I was at work, I took a break and was talking some time to sort out my thoughts for tonight. However, all of a sudeen I hear these loud cries from the bedroom of the person I was supporting. As I approached the room I became more and more aware of this fowl stench that was in the air. I found “Rodger” in his bed, with his own feces about; this isn’t a typical day. I promptly told him that he needed to have a shower, I left to go get nylon gloves in order for him to transfer from his bed to a wheelchair, but then I heard a crash and knew exactly what happened. He had tried to make the transfer himself and slipped. Having to deal with this situation made me really angry but then I heard Paul’s voice in the back of my head “LUCKY!!!”.
I still have a very long way to go, but like one sprawled out on the floor covered in filth, Christ comes and perfectly enters to whatever situation we’re in. How is Christ going to enter in and change your world this year?  God will not forcibly possess or abuse you. Like the burning bush, he is a fire that does not consume. Saints, like the burning bush, are those that are illuminated but are not turned to ash.

Pope Benedict’s letter calling for the year of Faith is called “Porta Fidei” which means “The Door of Faith”. If you’ve never read “The Lion, the Witch, and Wardrobe” it’s about four brothers and sisters growing up in war-torn England during the Second World War. When Peter, Susan, Edmond, and Lucy are visiting their uncle in the country they find a magical wardrobe that, when they step through it, transports them to a whole new world, each with their own parts to play. When you walk through that “Door of Faith” there truly is on the other side the “journey that lasts a lifetime”. This Year of Faith is going to be the vehicle that carries us from an incidental set of ideals and superficial values to lives that are recklessly abandoned to the super substantial, to that which our beating chests crave most, and so that one day those hearts will rest within the confines of His own sacred heart.

St. Joseph, Pray for us.