The saints and blesseds are special signs of God’s activity. Their surrender to God’s love was so generous an approach to the total surrender of Jesus that the Church recognizes them as heroes and heroines worthy to be held up for our inspiration. They remind us that the Church is holy, can never stop being holy, and is called to show the holiness of God by living the life of Christ.
Our holiness is the same as theirs—God’s holiness. Their lives were indeed conditioned by the culture and history of their own day; their expression of holiness is partly different from what it would be in the twenty-first century. But the essence is the same: They received God’s gift with joy. They call to us to do likewise: “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God, which you are, is holy” (1 Cor 3:16–17).
—from the book Saint of the Day: The Definitive Guide to the Saints
by Franciscan Media
