Year of Faith, Year of Holiness

Many people receive the sacraments, devote time to God, make an effort to resist temptations and work for God. This is indeed commendable.  With regard to this sort of attitude, Saint John writes: ‘Tell the Church in Ephesus… I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you do not associate with the wicked. I know that you are steadfast and that you have suffered for my name’s sake without growing weary’ (Rev 2:1–3). St Paul also writes: ‘Finally, brothers and sisters, we encourage you and urge you in the name of Jesus: we have taught you how to live to please the Lord, and that is how you are living’ (1 Thess 4:1). God recognises the efforts of his children on their spiritual journey. But Saint Paul continues: ‘Nevertheless, make further progress’ (1 Thess 4:3).

‘In the spiritual life, there is no standing still. He who does not move forward is moving backwards,’ said Saint John of the Cross. Some of us may be tempted to compare ourselves spiritually with others and to think we are better.

A Call to Holiness

It is Jesus who is our model, for we must not be content with the Christian life we lead. We must move out into deeper waters and strive for holiness, for being holy is the ultimate goal of the Christian life. ‘Be holy, as I am holy’ (Mt 5:48). In the encyclical *Redemptoris missio*, Pope John Paul II states that every church must be enthusiastic about holiness. To be holy is to be set apart, to live differently from others, for God. Through baptism, we are set apart for God. So to be holy is to be like God (2 Peter 1:3–4), who by nature is holy and sanctifies. ‘May God sanctify you entirely’ (1 Thessalonians 5:23). It is God who communicates his holiness.

For a long time, I believed that to be holy, one had to be exclusively a priest, a religious, or of a different race. I believed that holiness was reserved for a select few, for those who perform miracles. But the Second Vatican Council devoted an entire chapter to the call to holiness for the whole People of God. Indeed, right from the earliest Christian community, the disciples were called ‘saints’ (1 Cor 6:11; Acts 9:13 and Eph 5:3). Often our weaknesses, our unfaithfulness and our sins discourage us in the face of this call. Many saints were, at first, great sinners. Matthew was a tax collector; Mary Magdalene was a prostitute; Saint Paul a murderer; Saints Augustine and Charles de Foucauld were impure. All of them changed their ways and, from the great sinners they were, became great saints.  When we read the lives of the saints, we may sometimes feel far from being able to act exactly like this or that saint, and this risks discouraging us. But Saint Vincent de Paul said: ‘Holiness does not consist in ecstasies’; and the Curé d’Ars said: ‘Not all saints follow the same path. There are some who could not even live together. Not all began well, but all ended well.’ Another source of discouragement stems from the fact that there are not always as many people living holy lives as there ought to be. So we prefer to conform to the way of life of the majority. Yet Jesus said that we were in the world but not of the world. People have often said: ‘If I were not in the world, in society, I could love God better’. It is precisely we who must transform the world, like salt, like light in the darkness, or like leaven in the dough. Even if you are the only one aspiring to holiness in your family and in your community, go ahead.

Even in this world, it is the saints who have done the most good for humanity. Saint Damien of Molokai worked valiantly amongst those suffering from leprosy, until he himself died of the disease. Saint Melania contributed greatly to the abolition of slavery, and Saint Joseph Calasanz to free education for all, and so on. Blessed Mother Teresa, whose life was devoted to helping the poorest of the poor, was once approached by a journalist who said to her: ‘Mother, aren’t you embarrassed to be called a saint?’ She replied: ‘No, because it is my vocation, but also yours.’

Embarking on the path to holiness

Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus said: ‘Holiness does not consist in practices, but in an inner disposition, because, though we are weak, we trust in God’s mercy and in His fatherly love’. Father Libermann, for his part, believes that holiness consists in the desire to give ourselves totally to God. This means that the greatest step towards holiness is, first and foremost, the desire to be holy. Before holiness consists of actions, it is first and foremost a desire, an inner disposition, a will. Do you have the desire to be holy? If you do not, ask the Holy Spirit: ‘Lord, give me the desire to be a saint’.

This Year of Faith is in fact a year of holiness; let us seek and commit ourselves to holiness.

Henri Bayemi