“Holiness consists in doing God’s Will and being just what God wants us to be.” (Saint Therese of Lisieux).
I have been thinking about the concept of holiness.
There are so many things that affect how we think about our life in Christ.
Some people are notably holy during their lifetime. In fact, one of the tests for sanctification – and the declaration of a soul as a Saint by the Catholic Church – is that the soul lived and died in an odour of holiness.
This is not to say that Saints never sinned. Of course they did. With the exception of the Blessed Virgin (conceived without sin), Saint John the Baptist (born without sin following the visitation, when “the child left” within Saint Elizabeth’s womb during his baptism), and Christ (God the Son Himself), no soul is sinless…
And this means that none of us are without sin. In fact, some of the greatest sinners in the world have become the greatest saints. Saint Augustine – for example – was a man who lived a life in deliberate opposition to God. He spoke often – following his conversion, which resulted after over thirty years of prayers by his mother, Saint Monica – that he had committed every single deadly sin. And still, through the Grace of God, he experienced a conversion and became, not just a Saint, but a doctor of the Church. And that means that he was able to contribute to the knowledge and teachings of the Church in such a way that we recognise his contribution to the Church.
And the only way this would have happened was if he became a vessel of God to do God’s will. Saint Therese of Lisieux said, “Holiness consists in doing God’s Will and being just what God wants us to be.”
And the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1420-21 says, “Through the sacraments of Christian initiation, man receives the new life of Christ. Now we carry this life ‘in earthen vessels’, and it remains ‘hidden with Christ in God’. We are still in our ‘earthly tent’, subject to suffering, illness, and death. This new life as a child of God can be weakened and even lost by sin. The Lord Jesus Christ, physician of our souls and bodies, who forgave the sins of the paralytic and restored him to bodily health, has willed that his Church continue, in the power of the Holy Spirit, his work of healing and salvation, even among her own members. This is the purpose of the two sacraments of healing: the sacrament of Penance and the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick.”
And most importantly, bearing in mind my job as a Child of God, it seems to be that the easiest thing in the world should be to sit back and remain open to my Creator. And today, I pray for the Grace to be a vessel – completely impassive in the Face of God…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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