​​​​​Our Archdiocese celebrates a major feast day this week, with the Feast of St. Louis on August 25. At moments such as these, it’s worth the effort to consider again what is intended in the naming and honoring of “holy people.” According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) in paragraph 2683, “have preceded us into the kingdom [of heaven]” and have their virtues publicly recognized and proclaimed when they are canonized ‘as saints.’” That’s a pretty basic definition, but let’s look more closely: Recall that “heaven” does not ultimately refer to a place, but to fully realized, actualized, and embraced communion with God. We have tended to envision heaven as something that can only be fully realized after bodily death, and there may be some truth to that idea inasmuch as bodily death entails a surrender of the egoic concerns of life whether or not we’re ready to surrender them, but it is the detachment of the body, mind, and heart from anything other than God that allows us to finally “enter” (think “awaken to”) that realm of God in which we live and breathe every moment of our lives. Bodily death may facilitate this ultimate detachment, but it is a mistake to assume a causal link between the two. In that sense, contemplative practice can be seen as the path to living sainthood, as all such practices are meant to unbind us from everything other than God, so that we can embrace our heavenly citizenship now.
Submitted by Andy Dapron