I’m No Saint
November 1 is All Saints Day. Catholic grade school children are parading school halls dressed like their favorite saint. We Catholics get two days of celebration. Halloween to end out the spooky days of October, and All Saints Day to introduce November, a time for giving thanks. All Saints Day also reminds me—I’m no saint!
“We’re No Angels”
My favorite Bogart movie is not Casablanca or African Queen, much as I love them. Rather it is “We’re No Angels,” a less well-known movie, a comedy, where Humphrey Bogart and Peter Ustinov star as escaped convicts: Who’d have thought Bogey could do comedy!
The movie is set at Christmastime and has the familiar trope of the convict with a heart of gold. The innocents in the movie are the family members who welcome three strangers into their hearts and their home, not realizing that they had recently escaped from the local prison. The evil villain is cousin Andre, played by Basil Rathbone. There’s also a small, multi-colored, poisonous snake that likes to masquerade as a bracelet. It has Christmas, murder and mayhem, romance, comedy, and Bogey. What’s not to love?
Angels Versus Saints
Like the title says, these convicts are no angels. Angels are supernatural beings with powers we humans don’t have. These characters are far too human, complete with all of our human foibles and failings, to be angels. And that’s why we love them. They are like us, struggling to rise above human failings to be good, decent people.
Like these characters, I’m no angel. I have more chance at sainthood than being an angel since saints are ordinary humans who have risen above their weaker selves to be something better. But I’m no saint.
Dorothy Day
“Don’t call me a saint. I won’t be dismissed so easily,” Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker Community, once said. She had a good point. People have a tendency to see saints as having a special grace or ability to be holy, rather than being just like them. If that’s the case, then its easier for saints to be holy and the rest of us are off the hook. We don’t have to struggle to overcome our natural inclinations towards evil. We can just give into them.
Now that Dorothy Day is gone, she has no control over what her admirers do. They are promoting her cause for sainthood.
I’m No Saint
For years on All Saints Day, I have preached about how we are all called to be saints. We are all called, but few of us make it while on this earth, including me.
One of the graces of growing older is that it is easier to recognize and accept just how unsaintly I am. When I was younger, I would have been devastated to recognize just how unkind and selfish I can be. I would have been sure that I was the lowest of the low. Now I have a strong enough ego and sense of self-worth to more readily admit my failings, pick myself up and try to be better.
The first week of the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius is spent on recognizing our sinfulness. This can only be done by someone who has had an experience of God’s love. Ignatius would not allow retreatants to begin the exercises until he deemed them ready. Without this basis of love, retreatants would despair or be discouraged and drop out when confronted with their sins. With this basis, they were ready to trust God. Only then can we surrender to God. As Richard Rohr says in his book, Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps, “It is easy to surrender when we know that nothing but Love and Mercy are on the other side.”
I’m No Saint – and That’s Okay!
I’m okay with being far from perfect and don’t beat myself up for every error. This is the product of years of self-reflection and working on my blind spots. I still have blind spots, but hopefully they are smaller.
Saints don’t have a special dispensation that makes them holy. They choose to be holy despite their failings, like Bogey when he chose to rise above his sinful nature in “We’re No Angels” and reform his life.
I’m no saint. I’m just a fallible servant of a loving and gracious master. That’s enough. I’d rather be a servant than a saint.
What about you? Have you grown in your ability to recognize your sinfulness?
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