All Saint's Day 2010

Today is All Saint's Day. For those of you who do not know what this day is, this is the day when Roman Catholics honor all of the Saints known and unknown. What does known and unknown mean? Known Saints are the people who have been canonized (recognized) by the Church as being Saints and typically have a feast day on which they are honored. An Unknown Saint is anyone else in heaven.

I am not here to give you a lesson about the Catholic Church. Instead, I want to discuss a point our Priest made about the canonized Saints in his homily (sermon) tonight. He said that all of the canonized saints started out just like us.  They were people who had their own trials and tribulations; but they rose above those problems to do God's work and spread His Word.

For him to say that people like St. Joan of Arc or St. Peter (the Apostle Peter) was like me, was comforting and ironic.  Two weeks ago I was trying to explain the concept of Saints to my CCD (Faith Formation) class. One of the things I told them was that Saints were people just like us. As kids do, one of them asked a tough question. She asked me if Saints ever told lies. I told her I am sure they did at one point or another, and then it came to me. St. Peter denied that he knew Jesus three times just like Jesus told him he would. Anyway you slice it, Peter lied. In a way, that is comforting. He showed a great sign of weakness. But that is not how we define him today. He is recognized by Roman Catholics as the First Pope. He had done great things before his denial and continued to do great works after it.

Both St. Joan of Arc and St. Peter had humble beginnings. St. Peter began his life as fisherman. St. Joan of Arc was born in the peasant class in 15th century France and eventually led an army to help the King of France regain his crown from the English. They went on to do astounding works in the name of God.

My point is that we can be inspired by learning and honoring saints.  It does not matter if you are Catholic or not. The Saints were good people who were doing great things for the people of their time. For me, those are the best role models to have. This is especially true at a time when it seems decent role models are becoming scarce. Here is a link to a site that lists all of the canonized Saints and brief biography. Pick one and read about him or her and tell me that you are not at least a little bit inspired.