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Dear friends,

The Roman Catholic church’s intention to canonize Mary MacKillop into sainthood deserves mention. Becoming a ‘saint’ in the RC church involves a three-step process. First, is establishing that a candidate had lived a life of ‘heroic virtue’. Second, confirmation of an initial miraculous work. Third, confirmation of a second miraculous work. Mary MacKillop has already been acknowledged as having achieved the first two steps and she was recently declared by Pope Benedict XVI as having achieved the third, therefore, qualifying her to be canonized as a saint. So what’s all the fuss?

No one is denying, at least no one I know, that Mary MacKillop was an inspiring lady and probably an outstanding Christian woman who deserves the honour of being counted among our great Australians. But the issue is naming Mary as Australia’s first saint. This is terribly confusing to the vast majority of Australian Christians, Catholic and non-Catholic alike. Can I not call myself a ‘saint’ if I have not performed any miracles? Is there a two-tiered level of Christian – the rest of us and ‘the saints’?

So to help clarify the matter, I offer these few points:

1. The noun ‘saint’ comes from a word group in the Old and New Testaments which literally means to be ‘holy’ or ‘sacred’, as opposed to being ‘profane’ and ‘ungodly’. Hence we can speak of the Holy Spirit. The verb refers to the action of making something or someone ‘holy’ and is closely related to the idea of sanctifying something or someone.

2. To make something or someone ‘holy’ often means to set them apart for a special purpose or role. In this sense, all of God’s people are described as ‘holy’ (‘saints’ if you like) because they have been set aside by God for a special purpose – to honour God and serve Him – and they are distinguished from the ‘heathen’ who do not.

3. The New Testament letters commonly use the word ‘saint’ in this sense to refer to the ordinary Christian disciple and the body of believers, not an elite class of Christian within the church:

(a) “To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints” Romans 1:7.
(b) “To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy…” 1 Corinthians 1:2.
(I think the Corinthians may have disqualified themselves for RC sainthood by not passing the first step – such was their ‘non-virtuous’ living. Yet Paul calls them ‘saints’.
(c) “To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Jesus Christ” Ephesians 1:1.
(d) “To all the saints in Jesus Christ at Philippi…” Philippians 1:1.
(e) See also Colossians 1:2; 1 Peter 1:1–2; Ephesians 1:18; Revelation 5:8, 19:8.

So ‘saint’ is a normal term for ‘Christian’.

4. To elevate a person to the position of sainthood robs the ordinary Christian believer of a wonderful privilege God has granted them in the gospel of Jesus. He has made us holy and set us apart for His glory – everyone who trusts in Jesus as Lord and Saviour, without exception. Every Christian is a saint. So Mary MacKillop is not Australia’s first saint. Australia’s first saint arrived with the First Fleet. Was it Richard Johnson?

Yours in fellowship,
Peter Frith

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