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UID:12139-1718841600-1718927999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:THE CHRISTIAN SAINT \nFrom “The Faith and Modern Man” by Fr Romano Guardini5 \n◊◊◊ \nWe associate the word saints with the idea of exceptional persons. In the \nNew Testament\, however\, it signifies Christians generally. Being a Christian at \nall was extraordinary. For the Christians stood out sharply from the \nenvironment; either one lived in the Old Testament world\, or in the Hellenistic- \npagan world\, and by both they were regarded as something strange if not \nhostile. The experience of conversion lifted them out of the environment. A \nsense of the reality of God not learned from natural religious experience or from \nthe teaching of the Old Testament had shaken and\, at the same time\, blessed \nthem. In the existence of Christ\, God’s countenance had been unveiled. The life \nof Christ had made them aware of how God is toward us. These experiences had \nchanged their whole lives. They had acquired new ideas of God\, new standards \nof judging the world. \nThe “renewal of mind” of which the Gospel speaks and which they had \nbegun to fulfill\, now consisted not only in a conversion to a good and pious life\, \nbut in a change of direction in their whole way of thinking. Thus for them “all \nthings had become new” — and with all these “new things” they found \nthemselves still in an old world\, a world which regarded them with distrust and \nhostility. All this is\, in itself\, extraordinary — indeed the very essence of the \nextraordinary\, and the “saint” was one who led this existence. \nBut the spread of Christianity and its increase in members tended to \nobscure its unique nature. Time went on\, the Gospel grew familiar\, and the \nsense of newness wore off. Christianity became the state religion and\, as such\, \nthe official order of society. Thus the fact that being a Christian at all was in \nitself extraordinary faded out of people’s consciousness\, and Christianity grew \nto be regarded as normal and usual. \nBy contrast\, a new form of the unusual arose. Now it belonged to the idea \nof a special calling\, a divine favor and testing\, with a wearisome\, dangerous way \nof life granted only to the few. Such tendencies had appeared in Christian \nantiquity as in the reverence for those who had given their lives for the Master \n—the martyrs — or for those who had retired into solitude to live a life of \nextraordinary austerity — the hermits and ascetics. But this concept of \nsaintliness developed particularly in the Middle Ages\, great human and \nreligious forces expressing themselves in extraordinary intensification of \nChristian daring and achievement. Then arose also the ideas of missionaries of \nthe Faith… masters of sacred science\, mystical writers. In modern times \nsomething else came in — the Renaissance feeling for the exceptional in human \nlife which affected the concept of the saint. With the ideas of Christian election \nand testing now blended that of the great man\, the pioneer\, the man of genius \nand the hero. \nBut the original concept of the saint was of a purely religious\, of a purely \nspiritual character. The concept of perfection\, to be sure\, includes religious \nperfection — all that is signified by redemption\, grace\, providence\, God’s inward \nworking. Nevertheless…if anyone had asked Paul what constituted the holiness \nof the saint\, he would probably have replied that it came into the world at \nPentecost. The Holy Ghost is holy\, and so also is the man whom the Spirit seizes. \nThe God Who reveals Himself in Christ is holy\, and so also is the man whom the \nSpirit brings into the kingdom of God. The saints\, then\, were those in whom the \nmystery of God held sway\, in whom His providence was working to bring about \nGod’s kingdom\, that is to say\, those who have believed and have been baptized. \n  \n5 The Faith and Modern Man\, New York 1952\, 128-133.11
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-198/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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