Howdy and welcome back to Beyond the Pew. My name is Taylor and this week we’re talking about saints. This is a great week to be doing that as we celebrate Halloween this week, All Saint’s Day, and All Soul’s Day. One of my favorite things this time of year is seeing what everyone dresses up as and a lot of them were superheroes! Ironman, Wolverine, Spiderman and even some everyday heroes like firefighters. We have these people that we celebrate as superheroes, and why? It’s because we look up to them, they stand for something great, and they are somebody that we can look up to as role models.
In the Church, we have these people who are our superheroes. The saints. People who have come before us who have lived holy lives, they had the same call that we do now and they lived up to that call, and they are great role models for us. They are our superheroes.
A ‘saint’ literally means somebody set apart, one of the holy ones.
So what is a saint? A “saint” literally means somebody set apart, one of the holy ones. People who we know as saints who have that name or title are people who are in Heaven now and this has been confirmed because people have asked for their intercession once they are in Heaven, and those prayers have been answered! We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are in Heaven.
These people are our role models in our faith. They lived similar lives that we do, they had the same struggles that we do, and they answered this great call that we have. In the book of 1 John, it talks about what you and I are called to. We are called to be holy as the heavenly Father is holy, to be perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect, and to not sin! That’s the call when John was writing this letter. He was like, I’m writing this to you so that you don’t sin! That’s our goal, right?
Our goal is to be perfect, just as our Heavenly Father is perfect.
Baseball playoffs are going on right now, and I’ve been thinking about these Hall of Fame pitchers. So the goal of a pitcher is to pitch a perfect game. It’s to get every batter out and pitch all nine innings, that’s the goal every single time. But these Hall of Fame pitchers, they give up an average of two or three runs every nine innings. Those are the best ones of all time, but their goal was to be perfect! But they didn’t often get there. How ridiculous would it be if they said, “Oh, you know, I’m going to give up three runs today.” That would be absurd. Their goal was to be perfect. And that’s what this book in 1 John is calling us to: perfection. We are called to be perfect. We are called not to sin.
You’re probably thinking, “Well, I’ve sinned three times since starting to watch this video, so…” Right? Look, we’ve all sinned. We’ve all fallen short of the glory of God, but in that same passage of 1 John, it says God knew we would. Even when we sin we need to come before God and ask for forgiveness.
Saints serve as models for how we are supposed to live.
These Hall of Fame pitchers are the role models for pitchers. Our Hall of Fame, our superheroes, the saints, are our models for how we are supposed to live. We are supposed to strive for greatness and for perfection just like they did! We must remember that when we mess up we need God and to ask for forgiveness.
Another aspect that people have questions about is, So why do Catholics pray to saints? Why do you celebrate All Saint’s Day and All Soul’s Day?
If you were a friend of mine, I could ask you to pray for me and I would trust that you would. I know that I’ve been asked to pray for others and sometimes I forget. I’m not perfect, but we have these people in Heaven whose sole job is to worship God and intercede on our behalf. Right? So a lot of people think this is weird. They’re dead, so they ask Why are you praying to a dead person? But we know in our faith that death isn’t the end. All death is is a separation of the body and the spirit, so these people go up to Heaven and they’re not dead they are actually fully alive!
People in Heaven are more alive and closer to God and united with their purpose than you and I are!
People in Heaven are more alive and closer to God and united with their purpose than you and I are! So just like I could ask my friend to pray for me, I can also ask these saints to pray for me.
So this week as you are enjoying costumes, candy, and celebrations, I ask you to sit down with your kids and ask them who their favorite superheroes are and ask them why they look up to them. Then share with them your favorite saint or Confirmation saint, and ask for the intercession of your favorite saint together as a family.
[tweetthis]Parents, share with your kids a favorite saint & ask for their intercession! They’re great role models #allsaintsday[/tweetthis]
We will be back next week with Beyond the Pew!