I remember attending Catholic school growing up and every year having to write a report on a saint. We were told that these people of faith were role models for us in our Christian journey. Even though they were real people, they always seemed to me to be larger than life. When I was younger I never thought I could become just like them. Now that I am older, I realize that we are all, in fact, called to be just like them.
Holiness is not something reserved for those in a book of saints. It is the goal of all intentional disciples living as good stewards. However, it takes commitment to achieve holiness. It also requires us to live mindfully and be continually aware of how God is moving in our lives.
You may never have thought about a stewardship way of life as a pathway to sainthood, but if you take the time to read the lives of saints you will see how these heroes truly cultivated the gifts God had given them and gave them back with increase to God. You will encounter stories of outreach to the poor, comforting the distressed, and befriending the lonely. And you will begin to see the parallel between what these great disciples did in their lives with the simple responses to God’s call in your life. The Church may never formally canonize you, but there will be those whose paths you cross that will bear witness to the fact that at least for a moment they caught a glimpse of what could have been a living saint.
—Tracy Earl Welliver, MTS