Spare the saints

Press, 12 November 1977, Page 15

Spare the saints

By

ANNE DILLON

“Spare us from saints,” says David Gunston, because, he tells us, living saints can be something of a trial to the rest of us. He gives as an example an elderly, and saintly, priest whose disregard of personal cleanliness made life difficult for all who

came near him, I think we must agree that in this respect at least, Mr Gunston’s saint fell short of perfection. We are told in (I Corinthians 13) that “Love has good manners,” and in this day and age good manners surely include a reasonable standard of tidiness and cleanliness.

In contrast it maybe worth noting that Mother Teresa of Calcutta and her sisters of Charity include in the very short list of their possessions a bucket in which they do their washing every morning.

Mr Gunston then goes on to talk about those who “can’t be pious and holy per se; they have to be seen to be pious and holy.” Such "saints” are indeed a disaster. Jesus summed them up when he said “Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.”

Mr Gunston’s main objection to saints, though, is that they make other people uncomfortable. I could answer this by saying, in what I think are the words of C.S. Lewis, “It’s amazing how much more one inconveniences one’s

family by getting up early to go to Holy Communion than by getting up early for any other purpose.”

This, however, is not the whole story. The “saint” whose way of life makes other people uncomfortable need not inconvenience those others in any way at all. He makes them uncomfortable just by being different. Most people in this world, even many professing Christians, are trying to do what Jesus said was impossible — to serve God and the world. They want to live a decent life — according to their lights — but they want all sorts of other

things as well —a house a car, a good job, a wife (or husband), maybe an overseas trip, or a position on the local council.

When they see someone, like St Paul nearly 2000

years ago, or Mother Teresa today, or even one of their own neighbours, who obviously thinks none of these things is as important as doing God’s will, whatever that may be, and wherever it may send them, all their assumptions about what is

important are challenged. And they do not like it. They say, “Spare us from Saints.” But it was the saints who “turned the world upside down” in the first century, and who have had the singlemindedness to carry through any number of worth-while reforms since. It is the “saints” who are still called today to be salt (which preserves and flavours) and light (which shows people where they are going). Of course, salt in a cut will sting, but it will cleanse the wound. Of course, sunlight will show up the shabby and dirty comers in a house, but without it life is impossible.

So do not let us ask to be spared from saints; let us ask to be made like them. Theirs may be an uncomfortable life, but it will never be savourless, or gloomy.