All the Baptized are called to be saints

All the Baptized are called to be saints

Each and every believer, and not only certain members of the church such as priests and religious, are called to be saints. In the words of Mother Teresa, “Holiness is not the luxury of the few, but a simple duty for you and for me”. The call to live a holy life and become a saint is rooted in baptism. People are baptized into the church for that very reason – to become saints.

They are initiated into a new life in Christ, as God’s adopted children and temples of the Holy Spirit. They are joined to Christ in his death and resurrection, as St. Paul tells us, “We have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4). Living this new life which is “hidden with Christ in God” (Col.3:3) means turning to God in prayer and keeping Hiss commandments, practising the faith in a committed manner, and trying seriously to live as saints.

St. Paul kept reminding the young Christian communities of their vocation to become saints.  He writes to the Christian community in Rome, “To all God’s beloved in Rome who are called to be saints” (1:7; also, 1Cor 1:2). Since they are sharing in God’s life he stresses even more the fact that they are already saints. In writing to the Corinthians, he advises them not to go to court when someone has a grievance against another. Instead they should solve it in their community by taking it “before the saints” (1Cor. 6:1). He also encourages them “concerning the collection for the saints” in Jerusalem (16:1) See also Eph.1:1; Col.1:2 and Phil. 1:2). He tells the Christians in Ephesus to “live as is fitting among saints” (5:3).