Fr Robert Hendrickson

Dear Friends in Christ,

I’ve been pondering what makes a Saint this past week. Three things come to mind.

The first is the ability to find joy. I don’t mean simple happiness or the state of chronic mania our culture seems to demand. I mean a deep-seated ability to perceive within the world, people, moments, places, and life in general a sense of inherent goodness. Saints seek the good — the have the ability to find what God has planted. There’s a chronic joylessness in our culture that is rooted in the inability and unwillingness to see the good around us, in us, and in others in our pursuit of perfection and quest for the next best thing.

The second is the desire to grow what has been planted by God. Not only do they see the good, they long to nurture and protect it. Their call to sainthood is not lived out by passive observation or consumption of the good. They nurture and call out deeper good, The stories of saints are rarely about perfection. They are about protection and peace. Saints protect those around them because they see the good in them. They nurture the good because they know it’s the gift that God has given — they live with gratitude for it.

Third is that the good they see is Christ. In themselves they see Christ worth cultivating. In others they see Christ worth cherishing. In the world they seek Christ. In their hope they see him too. In forgiving the know themselves forgiven. In patience they know God has been patient with them. They have a focus on the person, life, death, and resurrection of Christ that gives them a sense of joy, peace, and purpose that surpasses understanding. That’s why they are saints and we are too often content not to be!

It takes work to seek joy, nurture it, and protect it. It takes work to see good and to find a sense of peace. It takes work to be a Saint. Luckily sainthood seems to me to be less about being perfect than it is about being at peace in the person and promise of Christ. That peace enables us to find joy in the moment and a sense of the eternal when the immediate is always trying to swallow us.

May this be a week when you can find joy and nurture it as you know Christ’s love and peace.

Yours in Christ,

Fr Robert