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Originally appeared in APeX Attack #7 (October 2000)
What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?
By Brad Farmer
Before we're even old enough to tie our own shoes people
are asking us what we want to be when we grow up. Not that people
are seriously wondering what we're going to major in in college
when we're only five years old, but the question still gets asked.
The answer changes as our interests change, and it's fun to
watch the thought process that goes into it. I remember when
I was very young, I used to want to be a garbage truck driver.
I thought they had the coolest job in the world because they
got to ride on the outside of the trucks and just hang on. (Plus
I thought that they could keep the treasure that other people
were throwing away.) When I was a little older, I was fascinated
by the possibilities of unknown worlds and dreamed of space exploration.
That was when I wanted to be an astronaut. In connection with
this dream (and probably about the time the movie Top Gun came
out) I wanted to be an Air Force pilot. In eighth grade I learned
how to juggle, and by the time I was in high school I wondered
what it would be like to be a professional juggler. As I got
older still and people told me they thought I was funny, I knew
I wanted to be an entertainer. I knew I wanted to bring people
joy for a living. These dreams and others came in and out of
my thoughts, sometimes alone, sometimes many of these ideas occupied
my mind at the same time. But there came a time in my life,
when discovering the reality of my spiritual life, that I realized
another aspiration. I have learned over the years that it's
really more than just a dream or aspiration. It was a calling…
something that my heart knew better when I first realized it
than my mind understands yet today. I wanted to be, and, even
more than that, felt called to be… a saint.
When the idea first started to form in my head I wondered
if I really had what it took. Was God really asking me to be
a spiritual warrior? I mean, don't you have to hear voices or
see ghosts or something to be a saint? It almost seemed as if
the saints had some extra-ordinary ability, some special pre-disposition
to holiness that normal people lack. Well, I've discovered that
they were much more like you or I than many of us realize. I've
grown to love learning about different saints. There's so many
unique people from every walk of life who dedicated their entire
lives to Christ and I'm able to learn something from each of
them that I can apply to my own life. One thing that I've learned
is that they had no more special grace available to them than
every single one of us! In fact, most of the saints that had
any sort of mystical experiences had them after living a saintly
life for many years already. The only difference, in their case
from anyone else's in all of history was that they tried harder
to follow God's will. They worked at making their desire to
follow Him more pure. They truly wanted to follow Christ with
their whole lives, and did everything they could to make that
happen. They desired to be saints.
So that's it? They just "wanted to be saints"
and they were? There were other questions that ran through my
mind about becoming a saint. What if there's nothing special
I can do? What if other people aren't attracted to who I am?
What if I'm just a kid? What about my shady past and the failings
I still struggle with? Was saint hood just for monks and popes
and nuns? Did that mean I had to be single the rest of my life?
What about being married? Here's some answers to these questions
that I've learned from the lives of the saints themselves...
What if there's no particular reason people want to hang
around me? Popularity was never a requirement for sainthood.
Several saints even lived as hermits, or spent their entire
lives in a convent immersed in prayer. So, what if I have no
special talent to share with the world? The only special skill
necessary to be a saint is a true love of God. Most saints were
ordinary people with ordinary jobs. St. Peter was a simple fisherman
before becoming a leader of the Christian community. St. Crispin
was a shoe repairman who just gave good advice. What you have
been up to this moment doesn't matter, either. St. Paul persecuted
the Christians before his conversion, and he became one of the
greatest evangelists and missionaries of all time. St. Augustine
filled his life with worldliness and sin before he became one
of the greatest theologians of the early Church. St. Olaf was
a pirate before he helped c onvert Norway to Christianity. St.
Mary Magdalene was a known sinner, and yet she repented and became
a devout follower of Christ. In fact she became the very first
to see the Resurrected Christ! There's not even an age requirement
for sainthood! St. Agnes was thirteen. St. Mary Goretti was
twelve. St. Aloysius Gonzaga, patron saint of youth, showed
an unusual love for God at the age of seven, and only lived to
about twenty-three. But what about being married? Didn't St.
Paul recommended the single life. Didn't Christ teach that those
who can devote themselves entirely to the Kingdom should do so
with their whole selves? So, could a person be married and still
be a saint? Sure. Mary, Jesus' own mother and the very model
of sainthood, the first to devote her entire self to Christ,
was in fact married! And so was St. Joseph, patron saint of
fathers. Look at St. Monica, whose prayers helped convert one
of the greatest Christian theologians, her son St. Augustine…
and she wasn't even married to a Christian. Then, I learned
about St. Isadore and his wife (who just so happen to be the
patron saints of farmers… and I'm a Farmer). They were
married and were both saints, as well. These people lived out
their vocation in their marriage and still were able to devote
their lives to the kingdom of God!
So I guess pretty much anyone who wants to can become a
saint! Every Christian is called to follow Christ's example.
A saint is simply any person that devotes every aspect of their
being to living how God Himself taught us when He became man.
So how can we follow their example? Read about them and learn
from their trials and the way they perfected their desire to
follow Christ. Thomas Merton wrote in his book, Seven Storey
Mountain, "It is a wonderful experience to discover a new
saint. For God is greatly magnified and marvelous in each one
of His saints: differently in each individual one. There are
no two saints alike: but all of them are like God, like Him in
a different and special way." I strongly encourage you
to meet these new friends and learn how they allowed God to let
His image shine through them. Read the Confessions of St. Augustine
and learn about him and his mother, St Monica. Read St. Bonaventure's
biography of St Francis of Assisi, find out how St. Therese
of Lisieux grew in her spirituality through her "little
way" in her autobiography, Story of a Soul. Discover the
spiritual exercises of St Ignatius. Meditate on the Imitation
of Christ by St Thomas a Kempis. And the list goes on and on.
I hope this short article has inspired you to learn more about
these great men and women to whom we can look to for role models.
The greatest model is, of course, Christ Himself, but these
others can help us discover our path to holiness. St. Thomas
Aquinas once said that God will make you what He created you
to be if you will consent to let Him do it. All that is necessary
to become a saint is to want to be one. That guy was pretty
bright, and I think he knew what he was talking about. So what
do you want to be when you grow up? Better yet, what do you
want to be right now, and what are you doing to make that happen?
To learn more about saints on the web check out http://www.AmericanCatholic.org/Features/SaintofDay/ |