What does it take to make a saint in this world? Two miracles and much publicity? Martyrdom for the right cause? Canonization can be achieved on these terms, but it takes a bit more to be actually counted among the blessed. Scripture goes on at length about the holy ones, but their identification always seems to boil down to a curious factor rarely considered: the condition of the human heart.

While some might look only to the external criteria for sainthood – the lame throwing crutches aside, the cancer patient cured through timely intercession, or the firing squad shouting, "Renounce your faith or die!" – the biblical criterion for becoming a saint is simpler, and also perhaps more complex: Live with a clean heart before God and your neighbor. That opens up a new direction of discernment for sainthood.
Many of us have grown up with the idea of sin staining our soul, as an essential dimension of our religious education. First original sin and then actual sin. If sin leaves a stain, then a clean heart is one free from sin. This idea can cripple us, because no one is free from sin for more than minutes at a time. If sainthood means being clean-hearted, and cleanliness means sinlessness, knowledge of our sinfulness can demoralize us as we try to become saints. We’re obliged to take the nearest exit and abandon the idea of sainthood.
In the Bible, on the other hand, the clean heart is understood as being pure or focused. That points toward purity of intention more than action: recognizing that the horse needs to be in front of the cart or we're not going to get far.
The clean-hearted don't aim at keeping their hands clean, primarily. They have more important things to do than manage exterior conditions. They know that exterior conditions always result from interior ones. So the pure of heart focus on turning toward God: in prayer, in love, in purpose, in action, associating themselves hour by hour, day by day with the will of God. The habit of turning in a godly direction becomes their most important goal, not collecting good deeds like gold stars in the cause of righteousness.
Often in the Bible, we see what becomes of those who are righteous in their actions, but loveless in their hearts. Their offering to God remains immobile, and their heart, deprived of divine light, sinks more deeply into the darkness. But those who move in the direction of God are deepening their relationship with the source of love and light and life. Spontaneously and naturally. Only those who grow close enough to God to recognize themselves as children of God will live this identity with ease and grace. This purity is within reach of all. We can all become saints.

Prepare the Word & Lloyd Baugh SJ