“People who look like saints to us are very often not so, and those who do not look like saints very often are.”
Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain
We all have glasses on. Our set of values and criteria that inform our own definition of “saint.” Our pet peeves that immediately disqualify someone from sainthood.
Often, our glasses are really little more than mirrors. It’s easiest to call those “saints” who look most like us, who reflect back to us our own self-affirmed virtues. It’s perhaps even more tempting to reject (or worse, demonize) those who look least like us.
If all are created in the image of God, then everyone we meet is a potential saint. If all are fallen, then everyone we meet is potentially not as saint-like as they may appear.
Perhaps it’s not really our job at all to parse this out, but to simply accept each person as they are at that moment, more curious about their potential sainthood and helpful in their fallen-ness than we are certain of our judgments.
Admitting that we do not see clearly is the beginning of seeing clearly.
