Saints Next Door

Learning to embrace middle class of holiness

04/13/2018

            John 6:1-15 Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee. A large crowd followed him, because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. The Jewish feast of Passover was near. When Jesus raised his eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming to him, he said to Philip, "Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?" He said this to test him, because he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, "Two hundred days' wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little." One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him, "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?" Jesus said, "Have the people recline." Now there was a great deal of grass in that place. So the men reclined, about five thousand in number. Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were reclining, and also as much of the fish as they wanted.

Just when I think I’m overworked, exhausted and need a vacation, I check the Vatican website and see that Pope Francis has written another major document, an apostolic exhortation called Gaudate et exsultate (meaning “Rejoice and be glad”). Doesn’t this guy ever sleep? And Pope Francis is 81 years old, long past retirement age for most mortals.

The document describes the universal call to holiness as something for everyone, not just super Catholics. Everyone has to be holy. Let me share a particularly poignant section. The Holy Father reflects: “Nor need we think only of those already beatified and canonized…I like to contemplate the holiness present in the patience of God’s people: in those parents who raise their children with immense love, in those men and women who work hard to raise their families, in the sick, in elderly religious who never lose their smile (like Sr. Mary Sarto!)…Very often it is a holiness found in our next-door neighbor, those who, living in our midst, reflect God’s presence. We might call them ‘the middle class of holiness’”(Gaudate, 6, 7). Pope Francis certainly knows how to turn a phrase to capture a concept. Middle class holiness is for everyone.

The gospel of John serves up a delicious example of the saints next door in the story of the multiplication of the loaves and fish. When the apostles confront the daunting task of feeding the multitudes, all they can find for a solution is a young lad with five barley loves and two fish. They’re tempted to dismiss the little fellow’s bounty saying, “But what good are these for so many?” Jesus, however, does not miss this diminutive saint next door, and accepts the little lad’s gifts. The small boy steps onto the stage out of the shadows, plays his part, and immediately afterwards recedes into the recesses of the hungry crowd, never heard from again. He is what Pope Francis means by the middle class of holiness, and such people are all around us.

I think it’s a real temptation in the spiritual life to write off holiness because we think we will never be canonized a saint (and we probably won’t!). But that doesn’t mean we cannot be holy. We struggle with stubborn sins like sex and alcohol, we don’t always make it to Sunday Mass, we lose our patience with our kids and our coworkers, and so we want to throw in our rosaries and ask exasperatedly, “Why bother being good?” That is why Pope Francis wrote this exhortation: because we can still do small things and be the saints next door. Middle class holiness is within everyone’s reach.

Like the anonymous little boy in the gospel, our parish is filled with the saints next door. Our Eucharistic ministers who take Holy Communion to the sick in the hospitals and homes, our dedicated school teachers who instruct students with love and wisdom, our catechists who diligently prepare the young and the old to receive the sacraments with devotion, our cheerful church staff that does so much that often goes unnoticed and unappreciated, those who drop their dollars quietly and clandestinely in the poor box, Fr. Pius who’s retiring but still wants to serve. This is middle class of holiness and each of these people is happy to be of some service while eschewing the limelight. They step on the stage to perform their sacrificial service and just as promptly recede into obscurity, like the little boy in the gospel.

Several years ago the pope talked about retirement. I’m glad he gets tired sometimes too like me! He said very candidly: “The one thing I would like is to go out, without anyone recognizing me, and go to a pizzeria to eat pizza.” And that is exactly the attitude of middle class holiness.

Praised be Jesus Christ!