The subject of my ti morceaux right now are the Saints. No, not the football team! The Church’s Saints are those holy people who now already enjoy the direct experience of God – sometimes called “the Beatific Vision” – in the eternal state of glorious happiness that we call heaven.

I promised last time to consider first what sainthood is and what it’s not. It’s good to be clear about this, for the vocabulary of the Church can get complicated. The root Biblical words are the Hebrew qãdôsh and the Greek hágios: both basically mean “holy” or “sacred,” often with the connotation “consecrated to God.” At first used of objects like shrines and things used at worship like altars, the meaning broadened to include the whole people of Israel and especially her priestly leaders, angels, and of course God. By the time of the New Testament, “holy ones” became a description of Christians. In the writings of St. Paul and in the Acts of the Apostles, especially, this usage is fairly common. For example, refer to “Peter … came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda” (Acts 9:32), “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus” (Eph 1:1), and “Paul ... and Timothy our brother, to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father” (Col 1:2).

So the basic idea of the word “saints” is a group of people set apart for the Lord and His kingdom. Presumably, even though imperfect and sinful in this life, they’re always doing the best they can in being holy believers!

But soon in the Church the notion of “saints” became more of a reference to those human beings whose lives on earth have ended, and are unquestionably now enjoying heavenly bliss. This benefits us, for “those who dwell in heaven fix the whole Church more firmly in holiness,” as the Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms (art. 956). In the Apostles’ Creed we affirm our ongoing relationship with this “communion of saints,” for their intercession before God assists us in – we hope! – our efforts to join them one day. In traditional Biblical terms, we are called to be “saints” here and now on earth, so that we can become the more-perfect kind of “saint” in heaven.

So don’t think of the saints as completely different from us. In fact, they began as disciples of Jesus Christ just like me and you. And I hope we’ll be able to recognize this more fully when we start to consider some individual saints, although we still have a few general notions about all of the saints to deal with first.