Livin’ It
“If evidence for holiness is to be found in the life of Edith Stein, the biographer must look for it in her subtle and slow development – not in the act of death but in the process of living that makes a certain kind of death possible.”
- Greene, Dana K., “In Search of Edith Stein: Beyond Hagiography” in Contemplating Edith Stein, ed. Joyce Avrech Berkman (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2006), 140
This is something I’ve though about a lot with regard to my favorite saints. It isn’t so much the death you die as the life you lived so that when your chance for greatness came you didn’t flinch away from it. In a lot of ways, this is my definition of integrity: millions of tiny decisions all pointing the same way. In a saint, the decisions overwhelmingly point towards heaven.
Note, not all of the decisions point that way. Saints are sinners, saved and redeemed by the grace of God, but still sinners. In fact, this is what gives me the greatest hope for my own life. When it comes down to it, I’m pretty far from where I want to be. But I’m getting there. Little by little, day by day, I’m making my way towards where I want to be – safe in heaven in the embrace of my God. Maybe one day I’ll have my chance at greatness, the chance to finally play in the game I’ve been training myself for for so long. One of my friends used to say that the most important day in a person’s life is the day they die. One day I hope to be able to die the way a saint dies.
Girl! People like you are the reason I’m a plagiarist: Whew!
And I studied with Eric for 4 years at Steubenville and had great debates over our common classes and major, and never knew. Think of all the blackmail opportunites I missed.
Off to pass through the pagan Rome which is Notre Dame on football day in search of breakfast. But I’ll be back soon, I hope!
P
Hmm, interesting comment; what are we discussing here? Just me? Well, that’s all right!! So you two know each other, eh? That’s interesting. What’s the story here.