The Call to Holiness

by least_of_the_apostles

LIVING A LIFE FOR JESUS

As Christian people, how are we called to live our lives? Are we called to merely be “good people”? Are we called just to believe that Jesus exists? Or is it that saying a few prayers every day and attending Sunday Mass is enough?

St. Paul says, in chapter 4 of his first letter to the Thessalonians, that “God wills [us] all to be holy.” Similar, 1 Peter 1:15 says, “…be yourselves holy in all your activity, after the model of the Holy One who calls us…”

But what does it mean to be “holy”? What does this mean for the way we must live our lives? To be holy means “to be conformed to the image of [Jesus]” as St. Paul writes in his letter to the Romans. It means “to offer [our] bodies as a living sacrifice, dedicated and acceptable to God” (Romans 12:1) and to “put on a new self which will progress towards true knowledge the more it is renewed in the image of its Creator” (Colossians 3:10).

Put simply, we are called to holiness, to perfection; we are called to be just like Jesus.

Now, this seems like a daunting task. It may seem a bit extreme and simply impossible or even unnecessary. You may think that you cannot possibly live this call to holiness. You may think that God is simply asking too much. Maybe you think that you can simply continue to live your life being a “good person” while enjoying the things of the world and that God will understand. Or maybe you think that you will achieve this holiness eventually, but that it’s not your immediate concern right now. Well, let’s have a closer look.

WHY WERE WE MADE?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) 27 says:

“The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for.”

God created us out of love. We were made by Him just because He wanted to love us and because He wanted us to love Him. We were made for love and to love. St. Augustine of Hippo expresses this beautifully where he says, “You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”

Because God has created us for the purpose of loving Him and has placed that desire for Him in our hearts, we will never find true fulfillment and peace anywhere else. Every sin that we commit comes from us paying greater attention to a desire for something of this world rather than our deeper desire for God. Every sin that we commit is a result of us seeking to fill the longing in our hearts with something other than God. And every sin separates us from God, staining our souls and taking us further away from that image of Jesus that we are called to be. This is why we are called to reject sin in all its forms.

THE FIRST MAN

CCC 396 says, “God created man in his image and established him in his friendship. A spiritual creature, man can live this friendship only in free submission to God.”

Because of the disobedience of Adam and Eve, that is, original sin, the harmony of man with God and with creation was broken and death entered the world. We, as human beings, became inclined to sin and evil. We lost our perfect likeness with God, that is, our original holiness. We could no longer enjoy that perfect union with Him. The gates of heaven were closed to us.

But sin and death do not have the final say!

Despite original sin and our many subsequent sins against God, God still loves us! God still desires complete union with us! Despite our fallen nature and our tendency to turn away from Him, God’s love and mercy is so incomprehensible, so infinite, so eternal, that He would do anything to bring us back to Him!

Let’s just pause for a moment and take that in. The God of the entire universe, who existed before time began, who created the world and everything in it, who is all powerful, almighty and all-knowing desires each and every one of us in a personal way! He wants each and every one of us, miserable and sinful though we are, to be fully united with Him! He never ceases drawing us to Himself! He wants each person to be His child! He wants us to be His sons and daughters! The creator of the universe wants you to be His son or daughter!

So what did He do? Let’s call to mind the one scripture we all know – John 3:16.

“For this is how God loved the world: he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

In His infinite love, God sent His Son, Jesus, to save us. The Word who was with God and was God, through whom all things came into being, became just like us. As St. Paul says in his letter to the Philippians, Jesus “did not count equality with God something to be grasped. But he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, becoming as human beings are; and being in every way like a human being, he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross.”

So the Creator of the world emptied Himself of His glory to take on the form of man, His creature, to be born of a woman and to be like a man in every way except sin. He subjected Himself to poverty, to humiliation, to scorn, to injustice, to pain and eventually to death. And why? Just because He wanted us to have eternal life with Him. Just because He knew that we could not pay the price for the sins we had committed and yet we continued to commit them. Just because of His infinite love for us.

Because of the Lord’s sacrifice, we can have forgiveness for our sins. The gates of heaven were thrown open for us. We could spend eternity in perfect communion with the Lord, in whom all joy and fulfillment are to be found. Because of His gift of the Holy Spirit, we could throw off our old sinful ways and our natural inclinations and strive to live lives pleasing to God, our hearts set on the things that are above.

Because of God’s great love for us, we can have that perfect union with Him for which we were created, for which we crave. And that union with God starts on earth.

THE CALL

This takes us back to the original question. How are we called to live our lives?

We know that we were created by God and for God. That we will never find true satisfaction anywhere else.

We know that, because of our sin, we lost that perfect union with God for which we were created. That, even though we could never deserve it, God continues to love us, forgive us and draw us to Himself. That He desires nothing more than our love.

So where does that leave us?

It leaves me with this knowledge. It leaves me with the knowledge that nothing but complete immersion in Christ will ever satisfy me. It leaves me with a burning desire in my heart to be completely united with God. To strive for holiness and perfection every day of my life. Because I know that nothing else will give me that peace and joy that the love of Christ will.

The call to holiness is also linked to a few more considerations.

In striving to be holy and rejecting sin, we are called to be different from the world. We cannot please both God and the world. As Jesus says, we cannot have two masters. Our choice must be God, at every moment and in every situation. We must actively strive after things which will bring us closer to God and reject that which promotes worldly ideologies, even in subtle ways. We are called to glorify God in our choices and in our actions.

Every sin separates us from God. In rejecting sin and growing in the love of God, we grow closer and closer to Him even while on earth. In growing in His love and letting Him purify our hearts, we can have that peace and that joy that only He can give. We can have these even in the midst of trials and sufferings, even when faced with temptations.

The call to holiness is also a call to surrender. We are called to surrender our will to His. We are called to let Him have His way in us. We must echo St. John the Baptist and say “He must increase, but I must decrease.” But why? Because we cannot become holy on our own. Our human nature is fallen and we are susceptible to sin and temptation. The flesh is weak.

But God gives us grace. He gives us the Holy Spirit. And with these, we are strong. But God can only give us grace insofar as we let Him have control of our lives. St. Thérèse of Lisieux once said, “Holiness consists simply in doing God's will, and being just what God wants us to be.” God knows each one of us better than we know ourselves. He knows our desires and our weaknesses. He also knows how to teach us, guide us and strengthen us. And He knows His plan for our lives. He knows the way in which we can best serve Him. In every situation, we must be prepared to let Him have His way.

HOW DO WE ANSWER THIS CALL?

To firmly desire to be holy is to draw closer to God in every moment. If Jesus is our heart’s desire, we must set our heart on the things above. We must “set [our] hearts on his kingdom first, and on God’s saving justice, and all [the] other things will be given [us] as well.” When we desire Jesus, He will come to us and show us the way to Him. Our desire is no longer for self-gratification. We do not live our lives for ourselves. As St Paul says in his letter to the Galatians, “It is no longer I, but Christ living in me.”

Every action we take, every decision we make must be for the greater glory of God. They must lead us closer to Jesus. They must be done out of love for Him. It is no longer about what we think will make us happy. No! Our human desires and happiness are fleeting! We must consider what will draw us closer to God. We must consider what God wants for us. And in this blissful surrender, we have no fear. Because we know that God desires only our good. He wills only our joy and our peace. So we know that in trusting Him, He will lead us to true joy. Because He is our Father. Because He wants us to find peace. And because we know that He will never hurt us.

Jesus summarised the entire Law into two commandments (Luke 10:27):

1. "You must love the Lord your God will all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and

2. [You must love] your neighbour as yourself"

He does not ask for a partial giving of ourselves. He asks us to love totally. It is this love which will give us the strength to walk that straight and narrow path of holiness and which will bring us closer to our Lord. 

So let us all today make that decision to be true disciples of Jesus, to be saints. Let us decide to pick up our crosses and follow Him, knowing that nothing of this world will ever truly satisfy us like He can. As the psalmist says in Psalm 42, let us “thirst for God, the living God” and remember that Jesus promises that “no one who drinks the water that [He] shall give will ever be thirsty again.” Let us strive to completely surrender our wills to His so that He may draw us closer to Himself and make us into His own image.