You don’t have to be dead to be a saint, but it sure helps. No, wait...I’d better take that back. You do have to be dead to be a saint...but, not the way most people think of being dead.

I’m not talking about being physically dead. You can be a saint and be alive. In fact, once you become a saint you become more alive.

Perhaps, we should back up and consider exactly what a saint is.

The Greek word, "hagios" that we translate "saint" literally means "holy"or "special". Thus, a saint is a holy, special person. In Scripture the only way something or someone became holy was by coming into contact with God. Places, dwellings, objects and people were set apart, consecrated to God and made holy by Him. In the Old Testament such consecration limited their use, because once something was made holy by being touched in some way by God, it could not be used for other purposes, lest it become

profane or impure.

This was true with people as well. Until Jesus, the only person who could enter the holy of holies where God dwelt was the high priest. And even he could enter only once each year and only after engaging in a series of purification rituals. These purification rituals didn’t make a person holy. They only symbolically cleaned him up enough to put him in a physical and spiritual state where he was ready to be touched by God.

When Jesus came all of this ended for those who believed in Him. He became both our great High Priest and sacrifice that made coming into contact with the holiness of God possible for us.

The same thing happened to us when we came into contact with God through the waters of baptism. We (our old selves) were immediately struck dead. But, here is the good news. In that same instant we, like Lazarus in our Gospel for today, are raised to life and made holy.

We tend to think that a saint is a special, holy person who does something to merit sainthood. But the truth is, becoming a saint is a totally passive act. Like Lazarus we just lie there dead, and God through His word, active in the water of baptism, gives us life.

What might life have been like for Lazarus after Jesus raised him? Scripture doesn’t tell us, but we can pretty safely guess that it was not the same as before he died. I think we can assume that Lazarus responded to being given new life by living a holy, giving life.

The same is true for the saints of later times or for our day. These saints, whether Mother Theresa of Calcutta caring for the poor and dying or Betty Gene, Leora, Peggy, _____________, ___________, or any of our beloved dead were saints already in life because in baptism they died to sin and were raised to life in Christ. Some may have been better known, some may have made more sacrifices and done more acts of love, some may have demonstrated their sainthood in kind words and behavior, while others may have appeared to be less than saintly in some way, but all were saints before God. They were saints not because of what they did, but because God set them apart, consecrated them and made them holy by touching them in baptism. Each saint then responded to the gift of sainthood in gratitude in his/her own way. Each became the extraordinary, loving, giving person that family and friends knew them to be.