As the calendar today reminds us we celebrate all saints day, we offer a short reflection about the meaning of this word, saint, that is something that challenges us, regardless our belief.
Trying to summarize more than 4000 years of history, the ancient Hebrew word qds was used to identify all that acts, habits, rules related to worship and the relationship between human being and the divinity of God.
Greek culture translated that idea with the word άγιος (aghios) and then, Rome, turned it to the word sanctus, from which modern words derive.
Sanctus, from the verb sancio, means something or someone that is dealing no more with the human dimension, rather with a spiritual dimension.
While in ancient times this meaning was intended to stress the difference between those who where somehow admitted to the worship while others (pagans) were excluded, it is only after the New Testament that the word increases its semantic power.
We all are called to a higher level of existence and therefore santity is no longer a separation among people but a call to development, separating us from the laziness, from the immobility of a never-changhing life.
From the perspective of the faith, this is a God’s calling -and mankind is freely invited to answer this call by converging our own life in the direction of this invitation.
Something that strictly recalls some habits we have on the mat when everything fows smoothly, nice and easy just when we adapt ourselves to others’ point of view.
Ware wa uchu nari, I’m integrated in the Universe…when I bow to the Universe, the universe bows to me.
From a lay perspective, everyone of us feels we are called to an higher degree of evolution and integration.
Happy all saints day!
Disclaimer Photo by Joshua Davis on Unsplash