It is said that a Seventh Century monk, Saint Adamnan of Iona, was granted a vision of the saints in heaven, gathered around the throne of God.  An Irish text, several centuries later, described the vision this way: “A family beautiful, very meek, very gentile, again, without absence of any good thing in them, are they who dwell in that City.  Their array, however, and their ranging, it is hard to know how it happened, for there is not a back of any of them, or his side, towards another.  But it is thus the unspeakable might of the Lord hath arranged them and kept them, face to face in their ranks and in their circles equally high all round about the throne, with splendor and with delighfulness, and their faces all toward God.”

What a wonderful vision!  The saints stand face to face as a family of equals.  No one turns their back on anyone else - and, in so doing, they all have their faces toward God.

Every age of Christianity has presented new heroes, new saints, for us to imitate.  St. Lucy was a young girl who would lose everything including her eyes, but would not surrender her vision of the Lord.  St. Ignatius of Antioch would rather stand up to lions than bow before the statue of a pagan god.  St. Francis of Assisi gave away everything he had because it was all standing in the way of the only one thing he needed, God's presence.  St. Joan of Arc, a strong young girl who could have won a gold medal in the modern Olympics, listened to the voice of the Lord and refused to deny his presence in her life.  St. Thomas More would not permit anyone or any legal nicety to alter his conscience.  St. Catherine of Siena taught Kings and Popes about the presence of the Lord among them.  St. Theresa of Liseaux sent flowers to God with her daily sacrifices of love.  There are thousands of saints.  All are heroes for us.

What fascinating, multifaceted, colorfully unique individuals they become!  Oh, not the ones in pious poses in stained glass windows, but the real ones.  Godric of Cornwall, a retired pirate, living in a cave overlooking the ocean, accompanied by his pet snake.  Joseph Schereshewsky, stricken with paralysis, sitting for twenty years in the same chair, patiently typing out his Bible translations with his middle finger alone.  Catherine of Siena, stroking the pope's ego with sweet words while twisting his arm in the interests of “Holy Justice.”  And that holy fool, Basil the Blessed, walking naked through the snows of Moscow, and standing outside a church boldly munching a sausage on Good Friday, witnessing to the cruelty of the Czar and the hypocrisy of the church.  He liked to throw stones at the windows of rich people's houses and stole from shops that cheated their customers.

And there's Saint Adamnan himself, living his vision, patiently but insistently getting the warring Celtic chieftans to agree to a treaty protecting non-combatants, women and children, from slaughter in their warfare.  Oklahoma City, Israel, Palestine, 2800 dead in the World Trade Center, and now as many as 100,000 civilians, over half of them women and children, dead in Iraq.  And more to come, even as we speak.  Saint Adamnan, pray for us.  Your hard-won treaty, it seems, has been forgotten.  No, there is nothing boring about the saints.  Their witness is for us as well as for their own time.

Be warned, though: The saints, Jesus tells us, are poor in spirit, they mourn, they are meek, they hunger and thirst for justice, they are merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers.  The saints are our witnesses that something better is possible, if we hold on to the goal: the vision of that heavenly Kingdom.  So, remember St. Adamnan's City - where things are so wonderfully arranged that no one has his back turned on anyone else, but all stand face to face, with all their faces turned toward God.