How to Become a Saint: Step 2-Your Sainthood Team

On All Saints Day I was watching some various homilies and thoughts on the day from the experts on faith and Catholicism.  One of my personal favorites is Father Mike Schmitz.  His 2023 homily really struck a chord with me.  I will summarize parts of the sermon here, but I encourage you to get it straight from the source by clicking this link.

Father Mike likened becoming a Saint to an Ironman Triathlon.  Immediately, I was interested as 20 years ago I finished the 2.4mi swim, the 112mi bike and the 26.2mi marathon run and heard those words "You are an Ironman."  The rules have eased over the last 15 years ago, but it used to be very strict.  An Ironman race started at 7am with thousands of people starting the swim together and in order to be considered a finished you needed to cross the finish line by midnight.  That gives 17 hours to finish the race and be an official finisher.

When it gets close to that midnight time limit it became tradition for people who had already finished the race to return to the finish line to cheer on the final racers for the day.  Father Mike talks specifically about an Ironman Canada, but I've seen and heard of this happening numerous times late in Ironman Triathlons.  With the stands at the finish line full in the last half hour of the race, the announcer says he hears about a racer who is struggling, 2 miles down the road, but has only 15 minutes to finish the race to be an official Ironman.  Running 2 miles in 15 minutes is not impossible, but remember this a person who has been going non-stop since 7am.  So finishing the race is definitely not a certainly.  So  people then leave the stands to go down the road to encourage and run with this individual.  Over the next few minutes more people go to meet the racer and encourage him.  They want this person to experience of becoming an Ironman like them. 

When the racer gets near the finish line and makes that final turn they have a crowd of Ironman behind them helping and encouraging them to finish the race so they can hear the words, "You are an Ironman."

So how does this relate to Sainthood?  Like becoming and Ironman becoming a Saint is a race.  The racecourse is life.  And like the Ironman we have a team behind us, helping and encouraging us to finish the race.  All the Saints who have already finished before us are there running with us to the finish line.  We are never trying to run the race of life alone.  Pushing us to the finish are St. John, St. Joan of Arc, St. Pope John Paul, and all the Saints.  Your own Sainthood team.  The Saints want you to experience becoming a Saint like them.

We just need to follow our team's encouragement to get to the finish line, with the crowd of Saints behind us, where St. Peter says the words, "You are a Saint."