Pope: Saints are humble sinners who allow Christ to grow

May 09, 2014 - ‎Saints are not heroes, but sinners who walk the path of humility and bear witness to and imitate Christ. ‎Thus they let Christ sanctify them, as no one can sanctify himself or herself. This was the lesson that ‎Pope Francis drew from the readings of the Mass that he celebrated Friday morning at the Casa Santa ‎Marta residence in the Vatican. The Pope drew attention to the episode in the Acts of the Apostles on the conversion of St. Paul, and explained why the Church is holy despite being made up of sinners. ‎The Church is holy being the spouse of Christ, who sanctifies her with His Eucharistic sacrifice, the Pope said, adding, as ‎members of the Church we too are sanctified with her sacraments. In this regard, Pope Francis cited figures such as Mary Magdalene, Matthew, Zaccheus and Paul the great evangelizer who was martyred ‎in the city of Rome. Holiness is a gift of Jesus to his Church, and to show it He chooses persons in ‎whom one clearly seed God’s work of sanctification. It is God who sanctifies – no one else. To be a ‎saint, there is no special course like being a fakir or someone like that. Hence the first rule of holiness ‎is that Christ increases in us and we decrease. It is the rule of sanctity, the Pope said, we become humble, so that the ‎Lord might increase.‎