Brother Weeps said, “The saints are not those who struggle the hardest nor those who struggle the least, but those who surrender the most.
There is still great misunderstanding among most people about what it means to be holy. Too often its depictions are neither alluring nor captivating. Not in the least. It’s meaning has been taken hostage, bound and gagged by those who make holiness appear to be either starchy or obnoxiously pious or ethereal or otherworldly. There is nothing sanctimonious, cloyingly good, pretentious, or priggish about the truly holy man or woman. In truth, together with an integral spirituality, holy ones are often an odd mixture of earthiness, elegance, graced-imperfection, authenticity, vulnerability, fierceness, and humanity. And for them God is not someone out there over the rainbow, but the water in which they swim, as close as their breath, the air they breathe, the hidden presence in the enactment of love, the wind rattling the trees, the wonder in the bread.”
Brother Weeps paused. Then, “Many assume saints are the people who fail the least. I would suggest the exact opposite is the case.”
His listeners looked surprised. A young woman spoke up, “They fail more?”
“Oh, no, no. Not more. The most.” he said. The surprise in their eyes he expected. He continued. “The saints are the ones who fail the most. They fail better, to repurpose Becket. The saints are the people who fail the most because they risk the most the most often. And what they risk, over and over again, in both little and large measure, is love.
It’s not their fault that the word and idea of love, like that of holiness, has been so cheapened or saccharized or lampooned or treated irreverently, or worse yet, ignored altogether.
The holy ones risk making love real. That’s all. It’s as simple and as difficult as that. A saint is someone who cooperates with the grace of the present moment and incarnates love, makes love look possible and authentic, earthy and magnanimous and liberating. A saint knows love needs a body and so chooses to give his or her body to love. Love is the word. The word became human and dwelt among us. Now we humans must become the word. St. Paul writes, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you abundantly.” So now it is for us to abundantly live the word. Love is the word,” said Brother Weeps.♣
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