The Face of Mercy / Daniel Conway

Saints witness to Jesus, offer example to us

“Today Jesus invites us to return to the source of joy, which is the encounter with him, the courageous choice to risk everything to follow him, the satisfaction of leaving something behind in order to embrace his way.” (Pope Francis during a canonization liturgy of seven saints, Oct. 14, 2018)

Since he became shepherd of the universal Church in 2013, Pope Francis has called our attention to “the source of joy,” which is the personal encounter with Jesus Christ. The pope has written about, preached about and, through dramatic gestures, practiced the joy of the Gospel.

The saints canonized by Pope Francis last month were witnesses to joy. That doesn’t mean they were without sorrow or fear. It means that the human emotions that they experienced, as we all do, were handed over to Jesus with complete confidence in the Lord’s ability to transform them by the power of his passion, death and resurrection.

Just as Jesus was mocked, scourged and crucified, the saints all share in his suffering in their own ways. Some, including St. Oscar Romero, were brutally martyred. Others, including St. Paul VI, suffered from exterior criticism and interior anxiety and doubt. None was a perfect human being. All sinned, and all turned to the Lord, overcome with sorrow and guilt, seeking his forgiveness.

All saints are sinners, and all sinners are called to repent, seek the Lord’s mercy, and resume their journey to holiness. As Pope Francis reminds us frequently, it is divine mercy that transforms sinners into saints and redeems all the “poor souls” we pray for, especially during the month of November.

Reflecting on the Gospel reading for the Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, the passage in St. Mark’s Gospel where Jesus is asked what must be done to gain eternal life, the Holy Father observed that the Lord invites the rich young man (and all of us) to pass from the observance of laws to the giving of self, from doing for oneself to being with God. This is radical conversion. It requires giving up much more than worldly goods. It requires us to give ourselves wholeheartedly to love of God and love of neighbor.

The young man in the Gospel story couldn’t do it. But Nunzio Sulprizio, a young man who was declared a saint last month, did exactly what Jesus asked. He surrendered everything to Jesus, the source of joy.

Many articles have been written about the personal connection that existed between the two well-known saints, Pope Paul Vl and Oscar Romero. They possessed very different personalities, and their paths to holiness were quite different.

“Even in the midst of tiredness and misunderstanding, Paul VI bore witness in a passionate way to the beauty and the joy of following Christ totally,” Pope Francis said. Oscar Romero gave up “the security of the world, even his own safety, in order to give his life according to the Gospel, close to the poor and to his people, with a heart drawn to Jesus and his brothers and sisters,” the pope said.

As Pope Francis observed about all seven of the new saints: “Without a leap forward in love, our life and our Church become sick from complacency and self-indulgence. All these saints, in different contexts, put today’s [Gospel] into practice in their lives, without being lukewarm, without calculation, with the passion to risk everything and leave it all behind. May the Lord help us to imitate their example.”

Many times, Pope Francis has reminded us that saints are not superheroes. They are ordinary women and men who have responded with extraordinary courage and love to the demands that Jesus makes of all his disciples: “Go, sell what you have and give it to the poor; then come, follow me” (Mk 10:21).

“May the Lord help us to imitate their example,” the pope said.

What must we do to gain eternal life? The answer is simple but not easy. We must be grateful, accountable and generous stewards who willingly return all God’s gifts with increase. We must be holy people who leave everything behind in order to follow him who is the source of our joy.

October 2018 was a challenging month for Pope Francis and for bishops throughout the world. Scandals, internal divisions and a crisis of confidence among lay people dominated the headlines. Thank God, the Holy Spirit always gets the last word.

Thank God, there is reason for profound hope and great joy in the witness of all the saints!
 

(Daniel Conway is a member of The Criterion’s editorial committee.) †