Dag Hammarskjoeld, one-time Secretary-General of the United Nations, once observed: "In our era the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action." Dorothy Day, that great Roman Catholic Social Worker, observed "When they call you a saint, it means basically that you're not going to be taken seriously." If they were and are both correct, where does that leave us?
First of all, they remind us that there is nothing we can do to become holy, but we cannot become holy without doing something. Doing good works is no guarantee in and of itself of growing in holiness, but we cannot grow in holiness without doing good works. Holiness is a by-product of doing what our faith demands, namely, loving God and neighbor and self with our total being. That, in essence, is the basic message of the Bible whether we realize it or not.
Love is a transitive verb. It demands action. We love in deed, in doing loving actions. When we love actively, we grow in holiness. When we grow in holiness, we become holy, saintly. Saints, of course, at least in this life, are not totally holy nor are they totally sinless. Saints are human, just like you and me. Granted, we would probably never consider ourselves saints, at least not on the order of Peter or Paul or Francis of Assisi or Mother Theresa. In fact, we probably would never even consider ourselves a saint. I mean, how dare we, sinners that we are! But we truly are – both sinners and saints, as incomprehensible as that may seem.
Dorothy Day reminds us that when we live a saintly, holy life, we will not be taken seriously. Others may admire our good works, but they will think us to somehow be a little off center, even foolish. The Apostles were considered fools, I am certain, by their friends and family and colleagues for dropping everything and chasing after some itinerant preacher. “Are you crazy?” they asked. Francis was considered out of his mind for giving up a comfortable, rich life to walk naked into a life of poverty.
So, too, when we do good deeds, holy acts. Our motives will certainly be questioned by those not prone to giving of themselves to others. They will assume that we do what we do from some ulterior motive for some hidden or perceived reward and not because we truly want to do good and live a holy life.
Well, so be it. But the awful truth is that they are absolutely correct. There are indeed times when we do good works for selfish purposes. It is also the truth that there is always something good for us in our good works for others. No good and holy act is totally and purely selfless. Nor can it be.
All Saints Day, which we just celebrated, is a reminder that we are all saints in spite of our sometimes less-than-pure motives. It is also a reminder that we all do good acts because we are holy people no matter what others think or believe. Finally, it is a reminder that we can never cease doing good until we are called by God to be a Saint Forever.
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