Saint Friends are Friends forever

Ever noticed how a lot of saints are paired up?  To provide a few examples, you have St. Francis and St. Clare, St. Benedict and St. Scholastica, and St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of God.  Then you have the mother-child pair St. Monica and St. Augustine who both knew and learned from St. Ambrose.  St. Vincent de Paul worked with St. Louise de Marillac, who had a spiritual director named St. Francis de Sales.  If you get into more obscure saints, you have the great team up of St. Boniface, who worked with St. Walburga, whose brothers were Sts. Willibald and Winebald.  They all worked to kickstart the Church in what is now Germany.   

The point is, a lot of Saints knew a lot of other Saints.  This is no coincidence.  Sainthood is often preached as the way that one individual comes to do God’s will and achieve holiness.  We look at Saints as great individuals of the Church.  

But they weren’t just individuals, and there was no way that they achieved Sainthood on their own.  It’s like the phrase goes:  You get more done when you work together.  Good luck achieving Sainthood on your own.  Very few people do.  But when Children of God come together to lift each other up, holiness is a less daunting task and easier to achieve.  Even Jesus says, “When two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them” (not exact quote).  

To bring this into my own life, I have been travelling through France and Italy with some of my great friends.  Has it been awesome?  Yes, but that doesn’t mean it has been smooth sailing the whole way through.  I know I could not get through this trip without my fellow student travelers.  We work together to get through the tough parts, support one another if we feel weak, but also rejoice together over accomplishments, and share the moments blessed by God.  

We do great things when we work together, and Sainthood is no different.  The nature of great friendships is that we lift each other up to the heights; lifting each other up to holiness.  Treasure your friends, because who knows, one day you may all be Saints.