Monday, July 06, 2009

On the road to becoming a Saint?


I read in the Telegraph that Cardinal John Henry Newman is close to becoming Britain's first new saint for more than 30 years after Pope Benedict XVI paved the way for his beatification.

Newman born in 1801 and died in 1890 at the age of 89 seems to have had a long wait for sainthood. In fact he has only just been given the title "blessed" and won't be classed a Saint until a 2nd miracle is attributed to him.

Somehow we seemed to have left the Behind a little bit. Why do we have to create so much hierarchy, stardom & elitism in the church. The Bible time after time refers to follows of Jesus as saints. Saint from the Latin sanctus is a human being who is believed to have been "called" to "holiness". It is a way of life not a title.

And Jesus uses the word "blessed" right at the start of His ministry. Matthew 5

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
Blessed are those who mourn,
Blessed are the meek,
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
Blessed are the merciful,
Blessed are the pure in heart,
Blessed are the peacemakers,
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

Now I am sure John Henry Newman may have been many of these but these are things you do when you and are seen in us as followers of Jesus when we are alive.

If you follow Jesus you are called to be blessed and are a saint.

1 comments:

Graeme Leslie said...

Quite agree - Jesus came to break down all the dogma that was prevelent in the church at the time, it seems all that dogma and hierarchy is still strangely important today!

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