Saints--What Makes Them Holy

Saints refuse to live in the world as it is, but rather, they choose to live in the world as it should be, showing the world what it could be.

Most people accept the cruelty, the poverty, the sickness, the violence, the misery, as the way of the world--the way it has always been and the way it always will be--the saints view the world as it presently is as an aberration. Violence, misery, poverty--these are not the way of the world, but they are the way we have made the world.

Saints live in the world differently, they are distinct from the world. That is what "holy" means. Holy doesn't mean being imbued with special stuff or to be spiritually better; holy means to be separate from. Holy objects are separated from other objects, either literally by physically keeping them apart from ordinary things, or mentally, as people think differently about what is holy, separating them in their minds from what is ordinary.

Saints live holy lives, not better, not more righteous, not superior, not any of the things we tell ourselves to justify not living up to our calling to become saints. Saints live holy lives because they live differently. It doesn't matter who they are.  It doesn't matter where they come from. It doesn't matter what they've done, or how they have suffered. Ultimately it doesn't even matter if they make a difference.

Saints are holy because they refuse to live in the world as it is, but rather, they choose to live in the world as it should be, showing the world what it could be.