Year B - Ascension or Our Turn to Witness
May 14, 2015
Even before there was a church to canonize, there were “saints”. A wondering appears about whether that term was more inclusive than we realize—an equivalent of Neighb*r? Michael J. Gorman, writing in The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible doesn’t go this far but hints in that direction, “Within the Christian tradition, there has sometimes developed both an elitism and a privatism in the use of terms like saint and holiness. The NT supports neither of these.”
If we reserve this terms for believers, even a whole community of believers, is there sufficient elitism to suspect that we have missed a larger import. Instead of a halo to represent a saint, might they simply have an asterisk floating above them to remind themselves and others that all they see here is not all there is.
What might happen if we spoke of everyone having the capability of being saintly rather than speaking of some degree of holiness as accomplished? Go ahead, speculate. Is there enough there to begin acting on it? If so, it is time to act. If not, good luck in staying within the saint-authorizing body and not testing yourself in the real world. This phrasing is not meant to be accusatory, but a bit challenging—like the challenge to not look at the sky but Neighb*r’s lives.
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