Marianne was finishing her coffee and getting ready to leave the retreat. The first session was over and she needed to run home to check on the children. As she dropped her Styrofoam cup in the trash bag, JoEllen ambled up to chat. "You must feel like a real sinner," she remarked, "living next door to a saint like Evelyn." Marianne was stunned. "I guess so," she stammered, and she hurried out the door.
Although JoEllen hardly knew Marianne, she had hit a nerve. Marianne was deeply conscious of her faults. She knew that her temper kindled too quickly and that she laughed to much at the wrong kind of jokes. She wanted to be holy, and she knew she wasn't. She needed no reminder that she was a sinner. Evelyn, on the other hand, made an almost perfect holy card saint. An attractive, though not really beautiful woman, she had long brown hair and a smooth oval face. When she spoke about the Lord - and she did this very well - she would slowly lift her wondering big brown eyes and an ethereal smile would cross her face. Anyone could see what a deeply spiritual person Evelyn was - one that Marianne would never measure up to.
Anyone who looks holy must be holy. This is probably the simplest and most obvious sanctity trap. We are all concerned how we look, what impression we make. Secretly we do like to be noticed. Some time ago a Russian doctor asked me if I had Russian ancestry. To his wife, I looked like a Russian prince. Even though I am mostly Irish and not at all Slavic, I found this flattering that this couple wanted to claim me as one of their own - and nobility at that!
If it's nice to be mistaken for a prince, it is espe-cially gratifying to be called a saint. We want to be saints. That is our goal. If other people think I'm holy, then I must be making spiritual progress. Because we usu-ally want to think the best about ourselves, it is not hard to start thinking that they are right - that we are saints. Looking holy becomes a concern. We start posing for our holy cards.
The most obvious way of doing this is through personal appearance. In my Catholic grade school in the 1950s, stu-dents who looked especially devout during Mass were praised, as were girls who wore blue (in honor of Mary). During the 1970s women in some charismatic groups began wearing long skirts as a sign of their rejection of feminism. In such groups woman in slacks or shorts eventually became suspected of worldliness or imperfect devotion to the cause of Christ.
The easiest way to impress others, however, is by how we talk. In the early days of the charismatic movement, the charismatics were always easy to spot; they constantly were saying, "Praise the Lord!" or even just "PTL!" Of course, this is not bad. Certainly it is better to salt one's speech with God's praises than to pepper it with crude cursing. But talk - as they say - is cheap. The problem begins when Christian slogans and expres-sions become our emblems to show off how Christian we are. We laugh at people who try to sound "educated" by using (and misusing) long words; it is just as silly to try to look holy by using religious words.
Witnessing to God's love incarnate in Christ is not just an activity for some Christians; it is a duty for us all. The Second Vatican Council taught: If Christ is to come into the world, he must come through us. One of the clearest signs that the charismatic and Marian movements are from God is the strong thrust toward evangelism. Members of both movements have done an excellent job witnessing to God's love and mercy. The traditionalist, Latin Mass movement has born effective witness to Christ’s mysterious presence in the Church. But real witnessing always flows from one's life and experience. We give witness first by the goodness of our acts and then - as the occasion arises - in words. The true witness testifies to how Christ has made the difference in his own life.
This witness is good so long as its focus stays on the Christ who transformed me and off the wonderful me who got transformed. A particularly troublesome way to "look holy" is to over-spiritualize. By "over-spiritualizing" I simply mean turning every thing into a spiritual event and every conversation into a testimony about God. Everything is described in terms of God's acts and Satan's attacks. "I asked the Lord for a parking space and he gave me one right in front of the doctor's office." "I know that Mary was watching over our whole trip. We didn't miss a single con-nection." "Satan did his best to ruin my job interview. First I spilled coffee on my tie, and then I had trouble finding the address." Of course, God's providence does extend to everything. God can intervene whenever he wants. This is one reason why we should thank God in everything. How-ever, he normally works through the natural order of things. Satan might not want me to get that job, but like anyone else I can get clumsy with my coffee. And if I had followed the advice of job counselors, I would have left fifteen minutes earlier for the interview. And that parking space at the doctor's office might be empty because someone else had a traffic accident on the way to that doctor. When I over-spiritualize, I put myself on a pedestal above other people. ‘The rest of the world may live with natural causes and chances, choices and decisions, success and failure; but I walk in the wake of God's mighty moving hand.’ By over-spiritualizing I present myself not as an ordinary person who believes in God and loves him, but as a kind of angel dancing through a spiritual dreamland on earth. Other peo-ple see earthly things, but I believe I see everything from God's point of view.
One problem with "looking holy" is that eventually the image gets substituted for the reality. To put it more bluntly, the "Holy Card Picture" is false. In fact, real holy cards are often very sentimental and not good like-nesses. When the Church began to consider canonizing St. Thérèse of Lisieux, her religious order retouched the photographs of her to provide a more 'saintly' image. Her sister doctored her autobiography with extra edifying phrases. The real St. Thérèse was a bit too ‘ordinary’ to be a convincing saint. We have a natural tendency to elevate saints into superhuman beings, but when we do, we lose sight of what really made them holy. In the Hollywood blockbuster Quo Vadis, St. Peter is able to silence 50,000 cheering spectators in the Colosseum just by standing and holding up his hands - a hero, larger than life with com-pelling moral authority. The real St. Peter was a man, not a superman.
It is good to remember that when movie producers want to portray saints, they hire professional actors and not holy people. There were thousands of very good nuns in their convents in 1943, but the producers of Song of Bernadette chose Jennifer Jones to play Bernadette. Col-lapsing in the rain beneath the cross, Olivia Hussey's Mary made us almost feel how sharp that sword was that pierced the Sorrowful Mother's heart.* Both of these actresses por-trayed holiness wonderfully. They looked holy. That was their job. And it would be hard to find a living saint who could play those roles as well. The point is that looking holy is an art, a skill that professional performers can do very well. Looking and acting holy are not the same as being holy.
An even more serious problem with looking holy is that Christ forbids us to try it. He warns us not to be like the hypocrites who pray on the street corners and wear long faces when they fast so that others will notice them. (Mt. 6: 5, 16) Those who practice holiness to impress others will get their reward from other men, not from God. Indeed, the Apostle John tells us that the reason the Pharisees - the holy men of their time - rejected Christ was that they cared more for the praise of men that for the praise of God. (Jn. 12: 43) Trying to look holy is not only foolish, but dangerous as well.
Being holy is not the same as seeming holy, but why is the "Holy Card Picture" syndrome a trap? What is there about it that catches Christians and won't let them go? Recall that Jesus said that if your concern is to look holy, you already have your reward (Mt. 6: 2, 5, and 16). An old proverb has it, "He who pays the piper calls the tune." If the reward you seek is from men, then it is men you must please. Whoever gives you your reward calls the shots in your life. If you fall into the "Holy Card Picture" trap, then you are no longer free to serve God for his own sake; instead you have to do what makes you look holy.
If my goal is to be holy I will strive to love God with all my heart and my neigh-bor as myself. But if I want to look holy, then I become self-centered and vain because my focus is on me. On an earthly level, this is one of the trials of adolescence. Teenag-ers are acutely conscious of how they look and of what others think of them. To a four-teen year old, "bad hair" or a "zit" on the chin triggers a serious crisis. Everyone will notice it. One of the signs that a teenager is growing in maturity is that he or she be-comes less self-centered and begins to care more about the feelings and interests of others. The "Holy Card Picture" Christian is a kind of spiritual adolescent, who needs to escape his self-absorption and open his eyes and heart to God and others.
There is another and more ominous side to the "Holy Card Picture" trap. This is the trap of accepting others as saints simply because they make a good first impression. A Christian friend of mine once told me about seeing Elizabeth Taylor's portrayal of the good-hearted Jewess in Ivanhoe. He commented how he could tell that back then there was a real purity and innocence about her. Liz Taylor now seems to be an unhappy woman, and she has made some bad life choices. But a having played a particularly innocent and generous character does not tell us that the young Liz Taylor was really different . Kate Mulgrew has played St. Eliza-beth Seton in a movie and Captain Janeway on TV’s Star Trek. It would be as silly to expect her to teach us sanctity as it would be to ask her to pilot a space shuttle. But Chris-tians of all stripes - from ‘liberal’ to ‘conservative’, both Protestants and Catholics - do exactly this, following per-suasive personalities. Many Christians will believe, fol-low, send money to, and even commit their lives to religious leaders who present a compelling image. Believing that the image really does reflect the inner reality, they trust men and women who wind up misusing and even betraying that trust.
Certainly our Savior knew this was true. Jesus did not entrust himself to any-one, because "he was well aware what was in man's heart" (Jn. 2: 24-25). He sharply criti-cized the Pharisees for being "whited sepulchers", beautiful and clean on the outside, but full of dead men's bones within (Mt. 23: 27). He warned against those who appear innocent as sheep, but who inwardly are ravenous wolves (Mt. 7: 15). Again and again the Scriptures warn us that God does not judge by appearances. Christ takes special pains to warn us against being taken in by outward appearances.
Jack was a dynamic speaker and forceful personality whose natural gifts raised him into leadership of a growing campus prayer community. Though not handsome, he had a com-pelling presence. By his confidence in God's power and word, he drew people to himself. At daily Mass in the dor-mitory, the priest often allowed Jack to give the homilies. These were really extended teachings that formed the spiri-tual lives of prayer group members. At a time when too many priests were reducing the faith to a kind of vague optimism and general good will, Jack taught the cross of Christ in all its horror, as well as the reality of our sharing in Christ's resurrection.
Few saw Jack's other side. In a careless moment, while trying to draw some more mature members into his inner circle, he commented that every man has until the age of forty to make his mark in the world. Jack's achievement would be to form a vital Christian community. It would be his "claim to fame". (One of those present later stated, "When I heard that, I decided to have no part in it. I'm not going to commit my life to his dream.") Among those working closest to him, Jack's inspiring faith gave way to imperious commands and belittling put-downs. He could share a dynamic faith and intense love with a caller on the phone, but then he'd bark an insult at his assistant when the call was over. He could inspire a crowd that they were special in God's eyes, but make the typist feel incompetent.
The prayer group grew until ugly stories of psycholog-ical abuse surfaced, and Jack was forced to leave town. In his "household" - a kind of semi-monastic group of unmarried men - Jack was developing a "breakthrough ministry". In the middle of the night, a young man he thought needed spiritual growth would be dragged out of bed. Jack and his lieu-tenants would then bombard him with loud prayers, exorcisms, and accusations of sin, calling on him to repent and surren-der to God's will. This 'ministry' would continue until the moment of breakthrough, when the victim would collapse in tears and accept whatever Jack had to say about him. In his wake, Jack left not a community of faith, but a heritage of pain, psychological harm, bitterness, and mistrust of reli-gion in general.
Charm is charm, and acting is acting - whether in show business, politics, or re-ligion. If a con artist can con-vince people that he has their financial interests at heart, is it surprising that spiritual con artists can convince people that they are working for God's glory? Some times the two can even go together. A Trappist monk, Brother Leo, insinu-ated his way into the mind and life of a wealthy Texas widow, becoming her spiritual advisor. Eventually he con-vinced her, "If you love me you will do my will." And she did, making him trustee of a huge portion of her estate upon her death. He had won her confidence spiritually and used this to gain control of her fortune. Looking holy is easy. It is a trap to fall for those holy appearances.
Each of us needs to keep in mind what Jesus said about showing off our holi-ness. It may be gratifying to hear how devout I look, how my prayers inspire, how deep my insights are, what a saint I seem to be, but it is also dangerous. When Jesus told us always to take the last place, he was not talking only about looking good socially. At the heavenly banquet too, we must not assume the highest seat. God him-self assigns the seats, and mine might be much lower than I had expected. In fact Christ does not even want us to think about who will be the greatest saint. Our job is to love and serve.
Jesus takes this business of "Holy Card Pictures" even one step further. In his Sermon on the Mount he says, "Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of slander against you because of me." (Mt. 5: 11) I think, "What a blessing! They call me a saint." Jesus says, "No, it is a blessing when they call you a sin-ner and revile you." He even warns his apostles that the day will come when those who kill them will think they are serving God (Jn. 16: 2) And so, for example, St. Teresa of Avila, a mystic and Doctor of the Church. was condemned by some Spanish bishops as disobedient, rebellious, and trou-blesome. Her friend St. John of the Cross (also a mystic and Doctor of the Church) was even imprisoned by Church authorities as a heretic. When he was a young bishop, Angelo Roncalli's open-mindedness and charity earned him a reputation for sympathy with the Modernists, that is, with heretics. (Here I am reminded of friends who were judged to have "New Age tendencies" because they like fantasy fiction.) Much of his ecclesiastical career he suffered under official sus-picion and was given undesirable jobs. Not until his sur-prising election as Pope John XXIII was he able to expunge the charges of Modernism from the Vatican files on him.
We must not care what others think about our holiness. It does not matter at all. If your boss thinks you are a good worker - great! If your teacher calls you a talented student - be happy! But if anyone calls you a saint, flee from that person. What others think has absolutely nothing to do with your standing before God. God alone knows how holy you really are. So be humble. Keep a balanced per-spective on your own life. Look at yourself with a sense of humor and without self-importance. Be yourself - the "you" God made you to be.
As far as the holiness of others goes, the same prin-ciples apply. You and I have no special talent to recognize which of our fellow Christians are great saints. There is no earthly image that holiness "looks like". And the dis-tance between looking or sounding holy and being holy is infinite. Anyone can learn the art of seeming holy. Being holy is a matter of your personal relationship with God.
We must be cautious, then, about following "modern-day saints". Someone may speak movingly of the love of God. She may be aglow with the Spirit. He may thunder against sin and bring us repentant to our knees. But before we fol-low anyone, we must remember our Savior's own rule: "By their fruits you will know them." (Mt. 7: 13; 12: 33) Good fruits are the sign of a good heart. But these fruits are not looks or achievements. Our Lord does not tell us to look for a warm smile or a firm handshake, a gentle de-meanor or a serene face. He does not point us to achievements like stirring prophecies, inspiring homilies, conversions and followers. Even supernatural visions, prophecies, and mira-cles are not good fruits. St. Paul lists some good fruits for us: "love, joy, peace, patient endurance, kindness, gen-erosity, faith, mildness, and chastity" (Gal. 5: 22-23). When we see these (and we don't really see them when some one stands at a lectern or before a microphone), then the Holy Spirit is at work.
On the other hand, where we find greed, anger, factions, sexual immorality, insults, suspi-cion, mistrust, guilt, and bitter-ness, there the flesh is at work. If someone's life and followers show these fruits, we are foolish to entrust our lives to him.
Early in the charismatic movement, Dan stood out for charm and his sincere interest in others. (In fact he had studied carefully how to stand and focus on others to make the best impression.) He was very smart and had a rep-utation for great wisdom. One of his more enthusiastic fol-lowers spoke of the "love puddles" he left behind him. Another spoke of his almost mystical ability to speak pre-cisely to each person's spiritual state. On the other hand, even though he had great learning, his talks and teaching often left people confused. Eventually some of his follow-ers noticed that they would get opposite stories from him on certain things; it seemed he was not entirely straightfor-ward. Even though he came across as thoroughly spiritual, other leaders began to distance themselves from him and divisions arose. These are all signs of bad fruit. As this began to happen, some of that man's followers began to leave him. His fruits did not measure up to his claims to sanc-tity.
It is by their fruits - and never by their appearances - that the saints of Christ will be known.
Links