Saints have been and are uncomfortable

Saints have been and are uncomfortable

We have to be convinced that saints – we don’t think we are saints, but we do desire to be such – are necessarily uncomfortable people to be with. They are men and women, who by their word and example (like my holy Catherine of Siena!),[47] are a constant source of unease for consciences compromised by sin.

For anyone not wishing to lead a clean life, our refinement in the custody of the heart will necessarily be a reproach, a goad that prevents them from letting themselves go or falling asleep. It is good that it should be like this, for a child of mine who wants to avoid provoking such reactions in souls, who always wants to be “nice”, will not avoid offending God, since he or she becomes an accomplice in the wrong-doings of others.

  I said that a saint is uncomfortable, but that does not mean he has to be unbearable. His zeal should never be a bitter zeal; his corrections should not be wounding; his example should not be a moral slap in the face to his friends. Christ’s charity, that holy tolerance of others I spoke of, should soften everything, so that no one will ever say of a child of mine what is said (unfortunately, at times justifiably) of certain good people: You need two saints to put up with one