As I have suggested, the call to holiness begins with an awareness of the longing we have for meaning and purpose. It is an unrecognized hunger or need that we       experience but don’t necessarily recognize. It comes from deep within us.

People’s efforts to meet their deepest needs, to satisfy their deepest hungers, can be compared to a journey. It is a gradual movement from being isolated and alienated to being in communion with themselves, with other people and with God. They become more and more whole. They resolve more and more of the conflict of values within themselves. They gradually come to value, prize and care for God and neighbor as much as for themselves.

Jesus told a story that helps clarify what this journey is all about:

A man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ’Father, give me the share of the estate that is coming to me.’ So the father divided up the property. Some days later this younger son collected all his belongings and went off to a distant land, where he squandered his money on dissolute living.

In other words, the young man wanted to control his own life. He thought he knew what was best for him. He thought he knew what would make him happy. He isolated himself and alienated himself from his father. Then something happened.

After he had spent everything, a great famine broke out in that country and he was in dire need. So he attached himself to one of the propertied class of the place, who sent him to his form to take care of the pigs. He longed to fill his belly with the husks that were fodder for the pigs but no one made a more to give him anything.

Now, he was alienated not only from his father but also from himself and everyone else. He reached a crisis, and he began to dialogue within himself. He came to his senses and realized the reality of where he was and of what he had done. He assessed the situation and saw that there was nothing there for him. His spiritual journey began.

Coming to his senses at last, he said: ‘How many hired hands at my father’s place have more than enough to eat, while here I am starving! I will break away and return to my father and say to him, Father, I have sinned against God and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son. Treat me like one of your hired hands.

Coming to this realization must have been difficult for that young man. This parable is so powerful. Think about it!