Saint.
Sanctus. Agios. Svyatoy. Holy. We have journeyed through the whole
drama of Christ's redemptive work, through which our very nature was
hypostatically united to God, and through this union humanity is
given to be united to God by grace: Theosis. We become participators
in the Divine Life by grace. Even now from the right hand of God the
Father the God-Man, the Theanthropos, Christ Jesus beckons to us:
“Come follow me.” The journey, the life of a Christian is one of
ascent from this fallen world to heavenly God-like living, an abiding
in the Life. This is an ascent that begins here and now, it is an
ascent of transfiguration. I have heard that the Greek word for
saint, or holy one, agios, means not of this earth, not of this
world. There is a subtle insinuation in much modern non-Orthodox
theology: Christ has achieved everything (which is true) and now all
a person has to do is mentally believe and confess Christ and His
work and this brings about salvation. Salvation is primarily a
complete transfer of status from “not saved” to “saved” via
confession on the part of man and decree on the part of God. In some
regard this passive faith brings about a slight apathy in spiritual
life. Christ has achieved it all, all I have to do is believe it (and
claim it)! In believing one is said to go from the total state of
being condemned to the total state of having been saved. True
personal transfiguration is not of primary importance, in fact it
contributes very little to actual salvation. Of course there are
moral standards that must be kept, but in many modern groups there is
a strong impression that we, humans, cannot really live God-like
lives. Theosis is impossible, and thus the whole phenomenon of
saints.
The
whole reality of saints, holy ones, in the Christian experience
testifies against this new teaching, indeed it testifying to the fact
that all of us today, in committing to be Christians, have committed
ourselves to deepening our abiding in the Divine Life by grace.
I
would conjecture that one reason why many western confessions
do not have holy ones, saints, besides a very egalitarian take on the
issue - we are all saints and there are no “special” saints - is
the fact that to have men and women as examples of holy living is to
challenge our current comfortable worldly standard. Our times are
quickly losing any value or like for standards. Most things, from
education to exercise are being dropped to a lower standard.
Standards and challenge might make someone feel bad, so instead of
helping people work to meet a higher measure society seeks to create
environments of egalitarian “standards.” Now everyone can not be
challenged and feel good about it! This is first and foremost a
spiritual malady. What has been passed as Christianity in the Modern
world has so lowered Christian living that now we can all be saints
because there really are no saints! And if there is the off chance
there are, their lives are most likely quaint mythical stories only
meant to inspire (or possibly fantasy stories made up after the style
of ancient legends that are intended to awe the uneducated). In other
words, I do not really have to personally strive to emulate them, and
thus, in the long run Christ. And so we are conveniently not
spiritually challenged from the “status quo:” we can indulge our
passions and be “saved” all at the same time! We can neatly
pursue the obese acquisition of innumerable things, most of them
unnecessary to life, to satiate our desires and attain to heaven too!
We can live in comfort and easy, after all I worked hard to earn all
this, and “pray to Jesus in our hearts.” Salvation is easy,
anyone can be an armchair saint. The modern gospel has become: you do
not have to be holy, you do not have to be ontologically not of this
world (all you have to do is get a bumper sticker).
It
is not pleasant to hear about fasting while our bellies are full; it
is not convenient to hear about ascetical living while we live our
life of ease. After all isn’t Christ suppose to make us feel good?
All these examples of self-denial do not allow me to pat myself on
the back and say “you are doing just fine.” Instead they say,
“there is much that you have yet to do in Christ, arise work while
it is day; repent for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”
Christianity
is always incarnational. And the saints are those flesh and blood
epistles that prove Life in Christ is real. Without saints
Christianity is a philosophical teaching of the mind. Saints are
special in the sense that they have applied in a concrete and serious
manner the teachings and life of Christ Jesus: “If anyone desires
to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and
follow Me” (Matt. 16:24). Saints are those who have applied
themselves to being true humans. Most of us are simply use to living
in a state that is often devoid of true holiness. Yet in truth
human nature is in God, in Christ. Thus the truly human manner of
living is holiness, not the “norm” of enslavement to sin that we
have become sadly accustom to. We are all called to be saints, to be
holy in Christ; but we have not all fully desired this with all our
heart. Mankind's true vocation is to be made God-like, and the
saints prove this.
