None better to exemplify this than Kevin Burns, or Saint Kevin-of-the-Burns, as I think I shall rename him, from West Belfast. As he shared his story in two of the venues where they played as a band, it was wonderful to hear how his journey took him from Ireland through Denmark and Germany in his search for reality and truth to eventually find his peace with God through finding it in the reality of the person of Jesus.
It reminds me of an earlier Saint Kevin who lived in the sixth century, probably born around the year in which Patrick died, and lived a life of solitude and contemplation in the wild beauty of Glendalough in the Wicklow mountains. His name meant “Gentle One” and you only have to walk around the upper lake and the lower lake there to get a sense of that peace and harmony with God and with nature.
But, whether you’re a saint of the sixth century or of the twenty first century, the reality remains the same. You get to be a saint, only because of what God has done within you, and what God has declared about you, and not because of anything you have done, or from any decision of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. At the beginning of his letter to the Corinthians, Paul describes them as "...the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints...." - all of them notice. Not just the elders or those in high office, and not just the odd one that happened to have perfomed a miracle, or been extraordinarily nice to the tea lady. Everyone single of them that was in that church was called a saint by Paul. Well, I am very happy to be in that number, even before they go marching in.
http://www.reverbnation.com/slemish
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