Sainted people

Philippians 1:1-10
          Sainted people
         
         Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul’s Prayer for the Philippians

I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart,^* for all of you share in God’s grace^* with me, both in my imprisonment and in the deference and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus.And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that on the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless,

         This letter from St. Paul to the early Christian community in Philippi gives us a glimpse of what that early community was like and it is not so different from ourselves.  First, Paul is the one who argued that the message of Jesus should extend beyond the Jewish community. That in itself was a radical idea and was hotly debated within the core Christian community. It seems the 'church' has never been without it's problems or political infighting. The fact that the message had been extended to all the world is a testament to the fact that the Spirit was (is) alive and speaking to the faithful. If Paul had not won out so to speak, we'd all probably have to convert to Judaism before we could become Christians. That alone is something for us all to contemplate and treasure. How often do I have to say it, Jesus was a practicing Jew!

            The second thing that I cannot help but notice is the salutation, "to all the saints". Wow! I always viewed Saints as those people who had achieved such greatness and purity in their lives that they were recognized and held up as a model. As it happens, this is partially true. Later in the history of the Christian community and the history of what it is be a saint, "sainthood" was bestowed by individual faith communities. Later on, a whole process was developed and it became a statement about a person's life that was only officially recognized by Rome. The process was as tortuous as an other bureaucracy. But here in this early letter from Paul, we catch a glimpse of what it originally was. It was not a tortuous process and perhaps was as simple as a recognition of  faithful people / persons dedicated to the Gospel message and living a good life.

             That is a powerful notion. Does the official recognition of the Holy Roman Catholic Church really make a person a Saint? Perhaps God knows who the saints are. Perhaps God doesn't wait for the official seal of approval from Rome.

              Perhaps some of us are Saints and we just have not been officially recognized by Rome. Hmmm. Perhaps you know a Saint yourself. I  myself happen to know of two right off the bat. One has passed while we are are still graced with the presence of the second.  I wonder, after reflection, can you think of any living saints that probably will never see the scrutiny of Rome's processes or the official nod?

              One thing I do know, we should all strive to live Saintly lives. Maybe that is enough for God, no matter what Rome says.