Do you realize you are called to be holy and to be a saint? Many Christians don’t realize that their Initiation into the Church is meant to make this their life’s goal. In fact most Christians feel that it is beyond their ability to become holy since it requires them to be perfect. In truth, holiness and saintliness are not the same as human perfection. No matter what we do we can never be perfect during this lifetime. Further, God doesn’t expect us to be perfect and there is only one who is holy and He is God.
So what does it mean to be holy? What does it mean to be a saint?
During the next several issues I would like to share my ideas about holiness which leads to saintliness. Some of the ideas I will present are taken from the Fathers of the Church and some will be from my own reflections and thoughts on the topic. Hopefully they will be of some value to my readers. I would hasten to add that just because I share ideas about holiness and saintliness it doesn’t mean that I have any delusion that I have already achieved this goal. It only means that it is my goal.
There are a number of different dimensions to holiness. The first is to recognize your own uniqueness and to attribute this uniqueness to God. While biologists may argue that our uniqueness is due purely to chance, when we decide that our uniqueness is due to God’s plan, then we are on the path to holiness. Although we may not always like everything about ourselves, we have to know that our uniqueness is given to us by life for our spiritual growth. To believe that life’s uniqueness is given to us by God means that there is a Divine Plan for us. Life is planned to give us the opportunities and abilities to spiritually grow into God’s children. In saying this I know that faith is required. I must believe that God has given me this uniqueness so that I might have the opportunity to work towards greater union with Him. I am not an accident nor is my life. I am a thoughtful image in the mind of my Creator.
This image is of all that I can come to be!