November 6, 2024

By Father William Muench
NCC columnist

November is about saints. November begins with All Saints Day. I know that you are aware that we, Catholics, canonize saints. There is a Congregation of the Causes of Saints at the Vatican that determines those who is worthy of canonization. Persons are nominated for sainthood, and the congregation investigates them. There is a theologian that is declared the devil’s advocate, who is to investigate if there are any problems. This congregation makes a recommendation to the pope. The pope makes the final decision. Then there is a special Mass and ceremony declaring the person’s canonization.

The Catholic Church realizes that there are many, many people who are in heaven that are not canonized by the Church. Obviously, they are truly saints. So, the Church has a special feast day to remember and celebrate all the others in heaven who are not canonized – The Feast of All Saints. These are my saints. That is why I love this feast day. I am able to celebrate my friends, the members of my family whom I truly believe are saints and are with the Lord. You can say the same for your saints. This is a feast day for all your saints. You know how worthy they are; you know that they are saints.

What a wonderful feast day, All Saints Day. I can and do remember so many special people who have been an important part of my life. I want to tell the world, everyone, about them. They did so much to enrich my life; they did so much for others. On this Feast Day of All Saints, I celebrate them. At the same time, they challenge me to become a saint myself – just like them.

Today, I want to share a story with you, a story I recently read again in a book by Thomas Merton, “The Seven Storey Mountain.” I have read this book many times over the years. I first read it when I was in high school. Merton wrote this book as an autobiography of his early life, his becoming a convert to the Catholic Church, his entrance into a Trappist monastery, where he became a priest. As you well know, Thomas Merton had a powerful influence on me.

I want to share with you an incident that Merton writes about on page 260. It happens shortly after he was baptized as a Catholic and before he entered into the monastery. He is talking with his good friend, Bob Lax. I will use some of his own words in the book.

Lax asks Merton, “What do you want to be anyway.” Merton writes that he is a little confused but answers, “I don’t know. I guess what I want is to be a good Catholic.” Merton remembers that Lax did not accept this. Lax now says to Merton, “What you should say, what you should say is that you want to be a saint.” Merton writes that he thought, “A saint! The thought struck me a little weird.” Merton says to Lax, “How do you expect me to become a saint?” Lax answers him, “By wanting to. All that is necessary to be a saint is to want to be one. Don’t you believe that God will make you what he created you to be, if you will consent to let him do it? All you have to do is desire it.”

I have read this story so many times. But each time I come to it in the book, I stop. I need some time again, some silence, some time to pray, time to again consider – have I truly turned to the Lord, appealed to the Lord, asked the Lord to show me the way,  to guide me, to lead me to be a saint? I want to be a saint. Each All-Saints Day, I again pray to open my soul, to open myself to listen for the Lord’s inspiration, his guidance. My readiness to follow Jesus. I want to be a saint.