The Martyrs of Damascus

Yesterday, October 20, Pope Francis canonized fourteen new saints. Among those canonized were three founders of religious orders and the eleven Martyrs of Damascus. Pope Franics said, “These new saints lived Jesus’ way: service. They made themselves servants of their brothers and sisters, creative in doing good, steadfast in difficulties, and generous to the end.” In Sunday’s reading from the Gospel According to Mark, Jesus declares: “The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

The new saints include St. Giuseppe Allamano, an Italian diocesan priest and founder of the Consolata missionary order. His spiritual director was St. John Bosco, and Allamano instructed his priests to be “saints first, then missionaries.” Also among the newly canonized is St. Marie-Leonie Paradis, a Montreal nun who founded a community dedicated to the service of priests. St. Elena Guerra, foundress of the Oblates of the Holy Spirit. St. Elena said of the Holy Spirit: “Pentecost is not over. In fact, it is continually going on in every time and in every place, because the Holy Spirit desired to give himself to all men and all who want him can always receive him, so we do not have to envy the apostles and the first believers; we only have to dispose ourselves like them to receive him well, and he will come to us as he did to them.”

St. Manuel Ruiz and his seven Franciscan companions were martyred in Syria in 1860 for refusing to renounced Christ and convert to Islam. Along with them were three brothers: Sts. Francis, Mooti, and Raphael Massabki. St. Francis was the father of eight children, and St. Mooti the father of five. St. Raphael was single and spent much of his time in prayer and in service to the priests of his parish. Witnesses reported that, when their lives were threatened if they refused to convert to Islam, St. Francis said, “We are Christians, and we want to live and die as Christians.” All eleven were killed that night, either by beheading or stabbing.

Pope Francis declared the fourteen as saints, “for the honor of the Blessed Trinity, the exaltation of the Catholic faith, and the increase of the Christian life, by the authority of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the holy apostles Peter and Paul. … We confidently ask for their intercession so that we too can follow Christ, follow him in service, and become witnesses of hope for the world. … When we learn to serve,” Pope Francis said, “our every gesture of attention and care, every expression of tenderness, every work of mercy becomes a reflection of God’s love. And so we continue Jesus’ work in the world.”

Sanctity is for all. Sanctity is not for a rarified few who seem to love Jesus more than others do, or seem to follow Him more closely. No. Holiness is for everyone, and becoming holy simply means each day learning to love a little better. The place to begin learning to love, of course, is the family, which Pope St. John Paul the Great called “the university of love.” It is in the family that we learn to love, to forgive, to be their for others, and to put others first. Then we carry that love, forgiveness, and service to others out into the wider world, nourished by the Eucharist and by the other sacraments, and by our prayers.

Leon Bloy, the French Catholic novelist, once wrote, “The only real sadness, the only real failure, the only great tragedy in life, is not to become a saint.”

The saint is one who loves. The saint is one who forgives. The saint is one who serves. The saint is also one who cries out to God for mercy, knowing his or her sins, and desiring nothing more than to be so overwhelmed by the love and grace of God that sin no longer becomes an option. Even then, the saint seeks God’s mercy and grace, for the saint knows that we are saved by the mercy and grace of God.

St. Giuseppe, St. Marie-Leonie, St. Elena, St. Manuel and companions, St. Francis, St. Mooti, and St. Raphael – pray for us! Pray that we, too, like all of you, may live the life of Christ in love, forgiveness, and service to others.

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.