“What’s a Saint?" scream the demons in John Henry Newman’s celebrated poem, The Dream of Gerontius. Elgar’s wonderful musical setting has the demons spitting out the answer to their own question:
“One whose breath / Doth the air taint / Before his death; / A bundle of bones, / Which fools adore, / ... Which rattle and stink, / E'en in the flesh."
They mock the physical decay of the holy person: "No flesh hath he; For it hath died, 'Tis crucified".
Well - what is a saint? Who are the people we celebrate today on the feast of All Saints?
It is clear from St. Paul’s writings that the term saint is used in the early church to describe all the faithful believers in a way in which we probably wouldn’t use the term today. It might feel a bit presumptuous to us to speak of the congregations in our Benefice as a community of saints! We perhaps more usually reserve the word now to describe someone who has shown a remarkable example of Christian faith and courage. People who deserve to be celebrated as providing us with examples worth trying to follow or emulate.
They certainly come in all shapes and sizes, but it has been true till rather recently that saints have been more a feature of Catholic than Protestant spirituality. I find it very heartening and instructive that the Common Lectionary includes people from different denominations and none - people who may not have been given the formal canonisation that can only be bestowed through Roman Catholic structures, yet have been close followers of Jesus and huge influences on the Church. The Wesley brothers are obvious examples, and William Wilberforce and his companions who enabled the slave trade to be ended in this country.
My favourite saint is Thérèse of Lisieux, and when Graeme was a parish priest in London, we used to take a group of parishioners on pilgrimage to Lisieux most years. One year we were a bit short on numbers, so I suggested that Graeme contact his Baptist cousins to see if they would like to come. “They are Baptists - they aren’t interested in Saints” Graeme replied. But he invited them, and after a bit of thought, Brian and Jenny joined the group. They joined in the prayers in our Roman Catholic guest house in Lisieux and in the processions and ceremonies that celebrated Thérèse’s feast. And it blew their minds! When we got home, Brian contacted his academic colleagues at his Oxford College and together they wrote the best two books on the saints that I have ever encountered.
Thérèse’s life was wholly unremarkable. She became a Carmelite nun at the age of 15 and died at 24. In obedience to her Superiors, she wrote her life story in a few notebooks which included descriptions of her intense love of God and the way in which she put that love into practice through her ‘Little Way’ as it came to be called - easily accessible to all of us as a direct way to God. Her vision of the after-life was not a time of rest; she wanted “to spend her heaven doing good on earth”. And when Brian died a couple of years ago, he touchingly requested that this same quotation be put on the front of his funeral order of service. He wanted to join Thérèse in the continuing work of bringing in God’s Kingdom of justice and peace here on earth - and I thank God for them.
Sue Parfitt
