Sometimes we think of ‘the saints’ as the list of people the (Roman Catholic) church has canonised as Saints – Saint Peter, Saint Paul, and an increasing number of others. But I think we all recognise that these ‘official’ Saints are not the only saints in God’s eyes.
We might use the word ‘saint’ to distinguish between people who appear to be part of the church (because they say they are Christians, or were baptised, or come to church) and those people who, in Jesus’ words, ‘will be saved’ (see Mt10:22,24:13; Jn10:9).
It would be tempting (perhaps even comforting) if becoming a saint were a one-time thing: sign up and you’re in. But Jesus doesn’t say that: he talks about how we are living today, not about what we did yesterday; he talks about who we know and are known by, not who we heard and rubbed shoulders with. He used the idea of a narrow door to explain it, and a narrow door doesn’t have to be hard to find or hard to get through, but it does mean you could miss it if you’re not heading in the right direction.
Raymond.