To those who are concerned that the road to Sainthood appears to fast-track some men and women who only relatively recently passed from this life to the next, it is worthwhile remembering that both St Francis and St Anthony were canonised the following year after their holy deaths had ended their holy lives! May God be praised for all of His Saints! Even St John of the Cross, one of thirty-three Doctors of the Church had to wait a full 135 years. Ironic, really, because 33 is a perfect number of Doctors, since this was the age at which our Blessed Lord died. To have any more Doctors would be a bit rubbish now since the number of them is perfect, so if any more come along, they should be ignored. If they are genuinely interested in the good of Holy Mother Church, they will understand and keep schtum, so if there are any Doctors out there, shhhh...
2 comments:
er dude - we've no idea how Old Our Lord and Saviour was - the only two idicators being 'around 30' and 'not yet 50' - we can guess mid to late thirties - and I think we could do with a von Balthasar, Fulton Sheen and most especially our 'defender of the Faith' [as decreed on his death by a certain Eugenio Pacelli] - Gilbert keith Chesterton as Doctors of the Church
Interesting points raised. Prior to the Church process of canonisation being developed, saints were recognised as such by popular acclaim. I think the case could easily be made for both Mother Teresa and John Paul II as being canonised by popular acclaim. There are, of course, others such as Oscar Romero who may be considered saints by many. As for Doctors of the Church, well I think we're skating on thin ice if we consider there can be no more such declarations. As we can see above, there are many prospective candidates and I might even add our own John Henry Newman to the list.
In the end we are talking about heaven where time is not relevant. Let us recall that John of the Cross, like all the saints, didn't pass those pearly gates just because the Pope said so; rather the saint was already home and the Pope merely acknowledged this to be the case. Perhaps Mother Teresa, John Paul and Oscar Romero are already home, too!
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