Big ol' Jet Airliner

"Father, no high school student wants to be a Saint." That's what the Assistant Principal said in response to my suggestion that we should consider adding a Senior Superlative to the Yearbook entitled, Most Likely to be a Saint. "Father, no high school student wants to be a Saint."

I don't remember how I replied. In fact, most memories I would have of how I responded on such occasions are lost in the clouds of the emotions I was feeling at the time. But I'm sure I tried to make some defense of the call to holiness, which only served to confirm her opinion that I - and priests like me - should just let it go.

But I haven't let it go. I still believe that everyone is at least capable of becoming a Saint - and that there are some high school students who are likely to be. Saint Therese of Lisieux thanked God for preserving her from falling into the mud of grave sin, and in doing so challenged Steve Miller's claim that “you got to go through hell before you get to heaven.”

Of course, it doesn't seem that even he really believed that. I think he understood that the cultural elites pressure us to believe that, but, as I read it, it seems to me that even the Space Cowboy felt the call to holiness, and described it as a call to return home.

Goodbye to all my friends at home

Goodbye to people I've trusted

I've got to go out and make my way

I might get rich, you know, I might get busted

But my heart keeps calling me backwards

As I get on the 707

Ridin' high, I got tears in my eyes

You know you got to go through hell

Before you get to heaven

Steve Miller turned 80 last month. He was born in 1943, which means he was just 34 when Jet Airliner was released in ‘77, a song about a man chasing women and money and fame, all the while unfulfilled. No wonder he did drugs. No wonder any young person does drugs. And no wonder so many still do even as they grow older.

"Goodbye to people I've trusted." Maybe young people would indeed consider a call to holiness if it were to come from someone they trust, like a father or mother, or teacher or coach. But will we have the courage to call them to it? Or will we make excuses for that responsibility by saying, "No high school student wants to be a Saint."

I mean, it's not hard to understand what the Assistant Principal was saying, and I wouldn't be surprised if my response to her began with something like, "Well, no kidding, but someone has to hold out to them at least the thought of it."

Ridin' high, they've got tears in their eyes - bouncing around between colleges, uncertain of the future. But their hearts keep calling them back to all their friends at home and the people they've trusted. And while most of us learned the hard way, and by God's grace survived the fires of hell, not all young people are so fortunate.

Big ol' jet airliner, don't carry me too far away. +