Worried about the future? Look to these 4 saints

A recent survey by the Pew Research Center found that far more Americans say they would rather live in the past than in the future -- no wonder Back to the Future is still such a hit! Many report feeling uneasy about what lies ahead, preferring the familiar certainties of what has already been lived.

There is nothing surprising about that as uncertainty can feel unsettling. Changes in culture, technology, economics — these can make anyone nostalgic for earlier days. But for Christians, looking only backward is not an option. Our faith is rooted in an event that turned the world toward tomorrow — the Resurrection of Christ. And in the long history of the Church, there have been figures who, instead of shrinking from what was ahead, leaned into it with courage, imagination, and unwavering trust.

Here are four saints whose lives remind us that hope for the future can be an act of faith.

A Carmelite nun in 16th-century Spain, Teresa lived in a time of upheaval, both in the Church and in society. Rather than retreat from the challenges around her, she sought a deeper encounter with God that would lead to reform — not only of her own soul but of her order. She founded convents of the reformed Carmelites and wrote with astonishing clarity about the spiritual life in works like The Interior Castle.

Teresa was ahead of her time in recognizing that closeness to God demands both inner courage and outward action. She described prayer not as passive waiting but as a dynamic relationship with God, one that moves the believer forward. In doing so, she showed the world that spiritual growth involves movement toward what we have not yet fully seen.

Few popes of the modern era saw the future with as much audacity as St. John Paul II. Born in war-torn Poland, he witnessed totalitarianism firsthand. Yet as pope, he became a global pilgrim, traveling to remote corners of the world, standing for human dignity and religious freedom.

John Paul II understood that the Church could not simply conserve tradition like a museum; it must engage the world. His encyclicals — from Redemptor Hominis to Evangelium Vitae — addressed topics that had not even been imagined in earlier centuries, like genetic engineering, globalization, and secularism. He taught that the faith must meet the future not with fear, but with intelligent hope.

In a time when Church leadership was literally out of place — the Avignon Papacy — St. Catherine of Siena did something astonishing: she wrote letters and made personal appeals to bring the Pope back to Rome and to confront moral and political corruption. She was not content to remain silent or comforted in the cloister while the Church faced crisis.

Catherine’s innovation was not technological, but relational and spiritual: she believed that holiness must engage history, that prayer and advocacy can shape not only souls but institutions. In a world anxious about what lies ahead, her example teaches us that fear of the future can be replaced with bold charity.

In 19th-century Hawaii, when Hansen’s disease (leprosy) led to the forced isolation of its victims, few people wanted to go near them. Many feared the disease because they did not understand it. But St. Damien of Molokai did something radical: he volunteered to live among them, eventually contracting the illness himself.

Damien’s courage was not born of ignorance but of love. He walked toward the uncertain future of suffering not because it was safe, but because love called him there. His life reminds us that looking forward does not mean fleeing difficulty; it means bringing compassion into the hardest places.

The saints were not naive about the future. They saw uncertainty, conflict, and change. But they did not let fear define them. They trusted that God — the God of tomorrow — holds all time in his hands.

For many today, the future can feel intimidating: new technologies, shifting social landscapes, personal aging, loss, economic anxiety. It's no wonder that these can make the past feel like a safer place, and even appealing! But the Christian vision is always one of journey, not stagnation. We believe in a God who walks with us into every tomorrow.

Like the saints, we are invited not to run from uncertainty, but to meet it with courage rooted in love — the very force that gave the world hope two thousand years ago.