Devotion is the main act of the virtue of religion that connects us with God and helps us give God in a limited and imperfect way what we owe him. Genuine devotion is simply – as St. Francis of Sales tells us - “true love of God” (Introduction to the Devout Life).
There is devotion to God and there are devotions to the saints, including a special devotion to Mary. Devotion to God is devotion in the singular while devotions to the saints are devotion in the plural. The devotion to God is necessary for our salvation while the devotions to the saints are not, but may be very helpful to achieve eternal salvation – and happiness here and hereafter.
We are free to be devoted to one saint or another. All Christians, however, are asked to be devotees of Mary, because she is the Mother of the Son of God and the disciple of disciples, and our best intercessor before Jesus, the Son of God and Mary, and the Mediator. Among the saints, and after Mary, St. Joseph has a special place in the heart of all Christians: He is the head of the Family of Nazareth, the Spouse of Mary, and the Guardian of Jesus the Son of God and of Mary. St. Joseph, the just man of the Gospel, is the universal patron of the Church and therefore deserves in a particular way our veneration and prayers.
END OF OUR DEVOTIONS TO THE SAINTS
What is the end or goal of our devotions - prayers, novenas, petitions - to the saints? All devotions are ordered to God. “Devotion to the saints does not end in them but in God” (St. Thomas Aquinas; cf. Paul VI, Marialis Cultus 37). Truly, Jesus is the end of all our devotions.
All the saints follow Jesus and point him to us. All: starting with Mary, who is the holiest among the saints, and thereafter with the apostles, prophets, martyrs, pastors, virgins, confessors and so many anonymous women and men who lived their ordinary lives with extraordinary fidelity to God, and generous and compassionate service to neighbors. Jesus then is the goal of all our devotions to Mary, to the angels and saints. Thus, the authentic life of every Christian means imitating, following, and being transfigured – as much as possible – into Christ. St. Paul tells us that we are a letter of Jesus read to the world (2 Cor 3:3), and the aroma of Christ” in the world (cf. 2 Cor 2:14-15).
An inescapable question: Do our devotions help us be good Christians? They do help us if they produce good fruits in us, that is, good deeds, which proceed from God’s grace and love in us and our free and modest cooperation. Good deeds are the fruits of holiness: love of God and neighbor, humility, forgiveness, prayerfulness, and also of the love of our own cross. In this context, we recall two significant sayings of St. Teresa of Avila: “Few devotions and much devotion”; “From silly devotions deliver us, Lord!”
Our authentic devotions to the saints, especially to Mary, helps us, through their intercession before Jesus, to attain our objective, that is, following Jesus as the way to our home: we are citizens of heaven! Kempis advises us: “Make now to yourself friends, by honoring the saints of God, and imitating their actions, that when you leave this life, they may receive you into everlasting dwelling” (Imitation of Christ).
CALLED TO BE HOLY
The devotion to our saints does not consist in applauding them or in praising them, but mainly in imitating them as models of following Jesus. The saints of our devotions call us to be saints – like them.
Unfortunately, holiness or sanctity continues to be - for some or many among us, even perhaps among religious men and women, - a word that we usually apply to extraordinary people: apostles, prophets, mystics, martyrs, virgins, confessors - and “perfect” persons. We are not among them. Ergo, therefore, holiness is not for us. Indeed, only God is perfect, yes; but God wants us to share in his holiness – in his happiness -, and He invites us constantly to be holy – and happy.
Vatican II underlines that all Christians are called to holiness, that is, to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity (cf. LG 40; CCC 2013). God said to the people of Israel: “Be holy as I am holy” (Lev 20:26). And Jesus: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48). Holiness simply means intimate union with God, a union of love with him (vertical dimension) and with the neighbor (horizontal dimension).
How do we walk by the road of holiness? By following Jesus, the Beatitude of God. The Beatitudes of Jesus (cf. Mt 5:1-12 are the way of holiness and happiness. All the Beatitudes have a common denominator, namely happiness, a happiness that begins here: the eight Beatitudes are really “eight forms of happiness” (J. M. Cabodevilla, Las formas de felicidad son ocho). The saints, the blessed ones, are the happiest people to walk on earth: truly free, that is, free to love! “While they lived in this world, the saints were always happy, as it they were always celebrating a feast” (St. Athanasius).
The road of holiness is traveled, more concretely, by imitating the virtues of Jesus, the Virtuous One. Through the practice of the theological and moral virtues – all informed, given life by charity – we grow in love, in God’s love in our hearts. Practicing virtues – good habits – we progressively sideline from our hearts our enemies: pride, envy, avarice, lust, hatred, lies, injustice, violence, spiritualism, dogmatism, intransigence, etc. (Cf. Pope Francis, GE 134).
What is our daily road of holiness? Doing what we ought to do with love. Three key expressions point to us little but significant details of the practice of love in our daily life: saying, when we ought to, “Please,” “Thank you,” “Sorry” (GE, 145; AL, 133).
St. Robert’s father told him: “Son, the only mistake we make in life is not to be a saint.” According to acclaimed French writer Leon Bloy, “There is only one sadness: the sadness of not being a saint.” He asked himself: “Is it hard to be a saint?” His answer: “No; just walk one step beyond mediocrity and you are a saint.” A simple answer from a great saint, who was asked: What do I need to be a saint? Only three things, he said: “First, to want to be a saint; second, to want, and third, to want.” The burning question each one is asked is: Do you really want to be a saint? Certainly, the needed grace and love of God our Father will never fail us – never! God, moreover, wants from us our modest, free, and generous cooperation.
Once upon a time, two of my students in Moral Theology at the University of Santo Tomas, Manila wrote on their greeting card for my birthday: “May God form a saint out of you.”
God is still trying! (FGB)
-Fr. Fausto Gomez
