From 'Tears and Saints'
Easily the most incisive saint scholar of the 20th century was Emil Cioran. When I’m not feeling especially motivated by hagiography (e.g., today), something will always grab me in his blasphemous little book Tears and Saints.
Consider this, next time you’re thinking about saints:
Mankind has lived without God ever since it stripped him of his personal characteristics. By trying to widen the Almighty’s sphere of influence, we have unwittingly put him beyond the pale. Whom shall we address if not a person who can listen and answer? Having gained so much space, he is everywhere and nowhere. Today he is at most the universal Absentee.
We have alienated God by magnifying him. Why have we denied him his heavenly modesty, what immeasurable pride has prompted us to falsify him? He has never been less than what he is today, when he is everything! Thus we are punished for having been too generous with him. He who has lost God the person will never find him again, no matter how hard he searches for him in other guises.
Few are successful, but they’re there.