Michelle--or no, excuse me, Michael in Denver, Colorado, listening to EWTN on
1060 AM. Michael you're on with Karlo. Hi,
my question is, basically, who the first saint would be be considered?
Would it be the man on the cross next to Christ when He said "today you'll be with
me in paradise," would it be Moses, cause, you know, you never really hear "Saint
Moses," never hear, you know, "Saint Noah" or anything like that. Who would be
considered to be the first saint? Yeah, well if you're asking for sort of the
first saint in an official capacity where the terminology was used, I'm going
to have to answer I don't know the answer to that question. Regarding the
first saint we could ask the question "what constitutes a saint?" Namely, someone
who would have sanctifying grace dwelling within the soul, right? If you
died in that state and enter into the Beatific Vision, then you're a perfected
saint, right? So the question is, who is the first one to enter into the beatific
vision? And that's a good question, I mean, we don't know exactly. We know for sure,
Michael, that all of the Old Testament "saints," the righteous
people before Christ, when they died, such as, you know, as our tradition has it, the
good thief on the cross, they would not have entered into the Beatific Vision.
So although--immediately, that is to say. Although they would have died in a
righteous state before God, they would not have entered into the Beatific
Vision yet, because Christ had not ascended into Heaven. So all of those Old
Testament righteous people were not technically "saints," right,
because they had not entered into the Beatific Vision possessing the fullness
of of God's glory within the soul, and sanctifying grace, etc. Now we know,
according to Divine Revelation and Church teaching, that those Old Testament
righteous "saints," those Old Testament righteous people, went into
Heaven with Christ as he ascended and opened up the gates of Heaven, and those
souls would have entered to the Beatific Vision and then thus be
properly understood as saints in the perfected sense, in the full sense. So the
question is, "Which one of those souls made it through the gates first?" Right?
And of course we just simply do not know, so I guess we would say all of the souls
were the first saints, right? In plural, there would be no first, I guess, there
would be a collective group entering into the Beatific Vision with Christ as
he ascends into Heaven, and receiving the Beatific Vision. Now perhaps there might
be some who would argue, Cy, that, you know, Elijah and Enoch in the Old
Testament, the Bible speaks of them being taken up
by God, and specifically Elijah being taken up into Heaven; there's a little
debate about whether or not these two individuals actually entered into the
Beatific Vision prior to Christ's ascension or not. There's a little bit of
debate, maybe they were just taken up by God into the heavens, so to speak, not
necessarily intending to convey the Beatific Vision but there's arguments
for and against that. So I would just say that the ones who entered into the
Beatific Vision would be the group of all of those Old Testament righteous
people who were waiting for the Messiah, to whom Christ went and preached when He
died, according to 1 Peter 3:19 where He preached to the spirits in prison and
then those spirits following Christ, going with Christ, entering into the
Beatific Vision as He ascends into Heaven. So that group of individuals
would be the first souls to become Saints in full, right, to receive the
Beatific Vision. Now one last point, Michael: if we're talking about first
chronologically, that's how I would answer it. But if we're talking about
first in the sense of the GREATEST of saints, well then of course that
would be Mama. Mama Mary, the Blessed Virgin Mary, right? Because she's the
greatest of all saints, she's the Queen of Saints. So that's how I would answer
it. Thanks Michael.