While on vacation over the Thanksgiving holiday, I had the chance to run into a roving pawnshop dealer who set up outside of one of my favorite coffee shops in Sebastopol, California. His name was Gary and he had a Siamese cat on a leash and two glass top cases with assorted jewelry, gemstones and other semi-precious ephemera. There was a small silver trinket that caught my eye with the image of Saint Anne, whom I had never heard of. Then with the use of my smartphone, I searched and found the backstory of the mother of the virgin Mary who begat Jesus.
The myth about the parents of the Virgin Mary, St. Anne, and St. Joachim are not mentioned in the canonical gospels; however, their story has been told in a document known as the Gospel of James. This document is not to be read for its historical or factual accuracy, nor is it the inspired Word of God (which is why it is not included in the Bible). Yet, the legend included in this document that tells of St. Anne and St. Joachim is the first mention of Mary’s parents and has been a catalyst for Christians to honor and celebrate Mary’s parents.
Upon further research, I discovered, much to my secular amazement, that there are some 10,000 saints, most of whom are not in the Christian Bible. This got me thinking that there are probably more people both living and dead who embody the qualities ascribed to sainthood. You see, in my line of work, being a witness to the human condition — a journalist by trade — I’ve run across all kinds of people; princes and paupers, villains and vagrants, and yes saints and sinners. This has led me to the belief that the potential for good and evil is present in all people in various quantities in all places in every era. How we perceive people and their actions is often determined by our own point of view, beliefs, and the actions or lack of action taken by others.
What we mostly know about the 10,000 saints is mostly myths like the life of Jesus, that have been handed down third hand, translated, and then expanded upon so that the image of the real person is distorted like a shadow cast on the sidewalk of history. It kind of resembles the figure but doesn’t really capture the details of the real person.
All of mankind’s religions come from a charismatic founding figure — Jesus, Muhammad, and Abraham, to name a few of the dominant ones. That people across the centuries have argued, fought and killed each other over differences in religious beliefs I find it as a kind of a curiosity of the human condition, and I doubt the founders of these religions would condone the actions of their followers. That the world is now focused on the conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas is just one of the recent examples of the human condition and reminds me of the more than 2,000-year history of conflict in this region. Starting with the Romans who conquered Judea, then expelling the Jews, later the Muslim conquest of the region and the several attempts by Christians during the Crusades to reclaim Jerusalem.
That the three Abrahamic religions in the Middle East are fighting over decades-old grievances and persecutions is nothing new and seems especially hypocritical at this time of year when Western Judeo-Christians celebrate peace and light. Yet here we are again. The sinners are at odds with each other again while peace is nowhere in sight. There will be no peace for Israel until there is justice for Palestine and the whole world is watching. While a tentative truce is now holding in this conflict and the people who are brokering it behind the scenes are negotiating a ceasefire, what is truly needed are 10,000 saints to pick up the pieces, heal the wounded, and create a more just and equitable Israel and Palestine. What that peace treaty ends up looking like, only God knows, for it is in the hands of mere mortals and there are very few politicians who are saints.