Sanctification. What an elastic word it is! As is its bed-fellow, ‘saint’. To be a ‘saint’ is to be sanctified. To some, a ‘saint’ is a person who, though having to suffer under the most appalling conditions, does so without grumbling: ‘She’s a real saint to put up with it!’ To many others, a ‘saint’ is one whom the Roman Catholic Church has recognised as (or pronounced to be) a person who, now dead, when living performed at least two miracles, and, as such, is one who is worthy of veneration, and to whom the faithful should pray. Then again, many talk about Saint Paul or Saint Peter. |
