Being called to holiness means, I think, being called to accept the truth about our faith without proof. It means taking a risk and leaping into the unknown world of faith without even desiring any facts. It means believing that what our faith shares with us absolutely true.

I think that one of the problems is that in our modern world, where there is such divergence of thought, people are afraid to just believe. They want to be right. Of course when a person wants to be right it means that they want others to be wrong. This, of course, distorts what we believe. I think that the call to holiness makes it absolutely imperative that we choose to believe what we believe regardless of what others think or believe. I think that the call to holiness requires us to embrace this one truth: I cannot believe in things just because others believe in them. What I believe must make sense to me!

Obviously what others believe makes me think about my own beliefs and I assess the beliefs of those I feel are trustworthy. Nevertheless, I must assume responsibility for my own beliefs and, if I truly want to spiritually grow, I must embrace beliefs that come from a reliable source. The Church is such a source.

Why is the Church a reliable source? Because it has centuries of experience in coming to an understanding of the faith it professes. If I believe that the Church is founded by Jesus, truly represents His teachings and has consistently taught the same things over the centuries, then I accept what the Church teaches without just picking and choosing what I want to believe from her teachings. Of course this means that I have to know exactly what she teaches, remembering that everything that is said by a representative of the Church is not always the teachings of the Church. In reality there are very few beliefs that the Church professes with infallibility. These have all been declared as a result of decrees made by Ecumenical Councils!       What do you believe?