The Church teaches that by virtue of their Baptism all Christians are called by God to holiness or sanctity: to a deep and intimate union with God, to the fullness of Christian life and the perfection of charity. As St. Paul says, This is the will of God, your sanctification (1 Thess. 4: 3). So we are not called to spiritual mediocrity. We are not called to be just nice guys. For a Christian to be content with just being a nice guy is a lamentable failure. As Leon Bloy once said, At the end of the day, the only real tragedy in life is not to have been a saint.
So, since God has created us to be saints and called us to be saints, it stands to reason that for a Christian, all other aims and goals of his life must be oriented towards that aim. When we die and are judged by God, what will really count are not our professional or other achievements, our reputation, or our plans and projects. The only thing that will count at that moment is the depth of our love of God shown through our union with him and our obedience to his will for us. Everything else, if not done for love of God, will be so much smoke blown away before his gaze.
So exactly what is this sanctity to which we have been called? To answer that question we need to first look at God’s plan of creation.
God did not have to create the universe or man. He is one, perfect, self-sufficient and independent. He has no needs. He is perfect, complete, fulfilled and happy by Himself in eternal joy, because He is not just a Unity but a Trinity of persons, an eternal communion of self-giving love. “God in his deepest mystery is not a solitude, but a family, since he has in himself fatherhood, sonship, and the essence of the family, which is love.”1 So God can never be lonely.
If He does not need us, can He truly love us? Doesn’t His independence render him remote?
No, it is exactly the opposite. His independence and perfection safeguard God’s love rather than threatening it. For if God needed me, then creating me would have been a selfish act. It would have been for Him and not just for me. It would not have been an act of pure, altruistic love. Only if He created me for sheer gift, not need, was His act sheer love, total self-giving and unselfish generosity.
Creating me meant loving me from non-existence into existence. And that means loving me absolutely, not for any merit on my part. God created me out of perfect freedom. Unlike God, we are never completely free. We are always somewhat constrained and limited by circumstances and conditions outside our control. The fact that God created me out of His perfect freedom means that the whole cause of my existence is God’s will. God simply willed me (and the entire universe) into existence. He gave me being. What could be more absolute love than that? Nothing forced God or even influenced Him to create me except His own free love. He willed me to be – absolutely and unqualifiedly. To will another absolutely — this is absolute love.
Since God is not subject to time, He knows everything, even things that to us are not yet. What to us is future is already known to God as present. So He foresaw all my sins and rebellions against Him, all the trouble I would cause Him, including the Passion. Yet He still chose to create me, to love me into existence.
This love of God for me is completely independent of my own actions. God loves me infinitely and unconditionally whether I sin or act virtuously. I can’t earn God’s love by being faithful and I can’t lose that love by sinning. Although through mortal sin I can reject that love the way the Prodigal Son rejected his father’s love. But his father never stopped loving him in spite of everything that he did.
So, a first hint at what sanctity is: it is to correspond to this incredible and absolute love of God for me by loving Him in return, by living for Him. And we love Him in return by fulfilling the purpose for which He created us, by trying to be the kind of person He wants us to be.
We are born with original sin. This means that we are born without sanctifying grace, subject to suffering, sickness, death and concupiscence. By concupiscence we mean that our passions have become disordered and we have a tendency towards sin, selfishness and self-seeking. Concupiscence frequently manifests itself by seeking happiness and fulfillment in the lower appetites, for example in sensual or bodily pleasures instead of in self-giving, which is where happiness and fulfillment are really to be found. Our concupiscence leads us to indulge in illicit pleasures or to over-indulge in licit ones.
Christ redeemed us and by doing so opened up to us the possibility of union with God during our life on earth and the possibility of eternal life with Him in Heaven. The Redemption was also completely gratuitous, an act of pure love on God’s part. He did not redeem us because of any merit or goodness on our part, but simply because of His absolute love for us.
We can access the merits that Christ won on the Cross through sanctifying grace, which we receive through Baptism and the Church’s other sacraments. This sanctifying grace perfects the soul itself to enable it to live with God, to act by his love, to live and act in keeping with God’s call. For the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5: 5)
The first influx of sanctifying grace that we receive in Baptism effects a real change in us. It configures our soul to Christ:
“For all you who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Gal 4:27).
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be configured to the image of his Son in order that he might be the first born among many brethren (Romans 8:29).
Christ is the natural son of God. This grace makes us adopted children of God and hence members of God’s household and coheirs of Heaven with Christ.
Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God, and such we are (1 John 3:1)
So, then, you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household (Eph. 2:19)
For all who are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. (Romans 8: 14-17)
As an “adopted son” the Christian can truly call God “Father,” in union with the Son. When someone is adopted into a family he does not share that family’s blood line. But the adoption effected by sanctifying grace identifies us with Christ to such an extent that we become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1: 4). Yes, this grace is a participation in the life of God Himself. It introduces us into the intimacy of Trinitarian life. It is the divine life in our soul, so we become temples of God, who dwells in our soul in grace.
Grace enables us to live and to love supernaturally, beyond what our human nature can do on its own. It empowers us to enter into a deeper communion with God and to love God and others in the fullest possible way, with the love of God. It is essentially God loving others through us.
Christ is the First born among many brethren (Romans 8:29). He is the first born to the life of grace. And all Christians are called to put off the old man of concupiscence and to put on Christ (Gal. 4: 27). To imitate Him, to follow Him, to identify themselves with Him, to be transformed in Christ so that they can truly say, it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me (Gal. 2:20).
A common analogy used in the Catholic tradition to explain the power of grace in our soul is that of the iron rod in the fire. When an iron rod is placed in fire, it starts to glow, turning red. It emits smoke. It becomes very hot. It begins to take on the qualities of fire. And that’s what happens in our souls through sanctifying grace. It’s as if our souls are transformed by the fire of the Holy Spirit. We slowly begin to be more patient and forgiving like Jesus, courageous and generous like Jesus, humble and loving like Jesus. Over time, we begin to take on the qualities of Christ. (Edward Sri, Into His Likeness).
Now this task of transformation in Christ is something supernatural (i.e.; above our nature and so beyond our natural ability to attain) – it is the work of grace. And it is the Holy Spirit who effects this transformation, who continuously moulds the image of Christ in us. However, that work of our sanctification requires our cooperation, which mainly consists in removing obstacles to the sanctifying action of the Holy Spirit.
We also facilitate that transforming work of the Holy Spirit by cultivating an intimate friendship with Jesus. Indeed, without that the Holy Spirit is unable to transform us in Christ. And how do we cultivate this friendship with Christ? At a very minimum through daily mass, certainly and through time spent every day in personal prayer, through a daily meditated reading of the Gospels and other practices of piety, by trying to maintain an awareness of the presence of God throughout our day, and through regular spiritual direction.
Time spent daily in personal prayer is an essential element on the journey towards sanctity. Through personal prayer we foster an intimate friendship with God and this bears fruit by facilitating the task of the Holy Spirit. As Pope Benedict XVI has said:
Once you enter into friendship with God, everything in your life begins to change. As you come to know him better, you find that you want to reflect something of his infinite goodness in your own life. You are attracted to the practice of virtue. You begin to see greed and selfishness and all the other sins for what they are, destructive and dangerous tendencies that cause deep suffering and do great damage, and you want to avoid falling into that trap yourself. You begin to feel compassion for people in difficulties and you are eager to do something to help them. You want to come to the aid of the poor and the hungry, you want to comfort the sorrowful, you want to be kind and generous. And once these things begin to matter to you, you are well on your way to becoming saints. (Pope Benedict XVI, address at St. Mary’s University College, September 17, 2010)
Our concupiscence (or at least when we give in to it) represents an obstacle to the work of the Holy Spirit. So, we can frustrate the work of the Holy Spirit by committing mortal sin and losing sanctifying grace completely. But we can also frustrate that work by refusing to cooperate and hence making little or no effort to imitate Christ.
And how do we cooperate with the Holy Spirit in the task of our sanctification? Here the important theme of strength and weakness, abandonment and personal struggle comes into play.
On the one hand, we need to have a profound recognition of the fact that through our own efforts alone we can achieve nothing in the spiritual life. It is all a work of grace. Without a spirit of humility, without a deep acknowledgement of our spiritual poverty and weakness, all our efforts to grow in virtue and correspond to the grace of the Holy Spirit will be fruitless. Our goal is not to attain union with Christ on our own as a personal achievement, but to open ourselves to the grace of the Holy Spirit so that he can effect this transformation in us. Everything even our very desire to be holy, is a work of grace, as St. Paul says: for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure (Phil. 2: 13.).
We need to accept and embrace everything that Our Lord allows to happen to us, even crosses that he sends us that we do not understand, convinced that for those who love God all things work together unto the good. (Romans 8: 28).
However, this does not mean that our role is simply passive. To believe that would be to fall into the heresy of Quietism. If we think of recent saints like St. John-Paul II, St. Mother Theresa of Calcutta, St. Josemaria and others throughout the history of the Church we see that they were spiritual giants, making enormous contributions to the Church and to the world. So, in fact, abandonment is not only a cheerful submission to all that God permits to happen to us, but also a prompt, decisive and generous performance of all that he requires us to do. Our love of God, our desire to thank him for his gifts and our desire to give him glory move us to do his will once we see it.
Now, as we just said, on our own we cannot do his will. But when we have this humble attitude of abandonment in the arms of God, then the Holy Spirit’s grace fills us with strength and enables us to make great strides in overcoming our laziness, sensuality, pride, greed, envy and the other deadly sins. As St. Paul says, I can do all things in him who strengthens me (Phil 4:13). Empowered by grace we are able to sustain an ongoing effort every day, throughout the day to grow in the virtues and to overcome our sinful tendencies, always realizing that we are only able to do this because the Holy Spirit is working through us with his grace. We must never make the mistake of attributing to ourselves any growth in spiritual life.
So, in everything we do, we try to maintain an upright intention, which is a constant concern, free from anxiety, to keep all our actions free from anything that could corrupt their motive or performance, so that they are done only out of love of God and for the glory of God.
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God. (1 Cor. 10: 31).
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him (Col. 3: 17)
This effort will express itself in smiling and being cheerful even though we are tired. It means continuing our work even though we would like to put it down. It means offering to give someone a hand even though we do not feel like it. Indeed, when assessing whether someone has lived a saintly life, one of the measures that the Church uses is to judge whether the person lived all the virtues to a heroic degree.
An important element of this effort to correspond to grace is a spirit of sacrifice. Christ insists on the importance of the Cross in the Christian’s life. If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me. So, to put on Christ, to follow him and identify ourselves with him we need to carry our cross. On the one hand, this means embracing with love any set-back, adversity or tribulation that we might be faced with and never reacting with anger, frustration, annoyance or self-pity. For we see tribulations and set-backs, be they big or small, as opportunities to carry our cross with love, in imitation of Christ.
On the other hand, carrying our cross also means getting out of our comfort zone by denying ourselves in many large or small matters every day. This has traditionally been referred to as the practice of mortification. It can mean physical mortifications such as eating a little less of what we like and a little more of what we like less. When sitting down, not leaning against the back of the chair or not crossing our legs. Delaying a glass of water for 20 minutes when we are thirsty. Doing without a snack or a nap. Getting out of bed the moment the alarm goes off without hitting the snooze button. Taking a shower with water that is not as hot as we would like. Getting to the gym and working out when we don’t feel like it. Mortification also extends to other areas. It means mortifying our imagination, our memory, our curiosity and our moods. It means overlooking irritating details in others, controlling our tongue and dealing with each person with warmth, affection and kindness. It includes not allowing ourselves to be discouraged or frustrated when things don’t work out the way we would have liked them to. Without a spirit of mortification our supernatural senses become dull and it becomes impossible to maintain a life of prayer or to be attuned to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit and so discern the will of God for us. As St. Paul says, the natural man cannot perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God. (1 Cor. 2:14). If we have the right spirit, however, we do not have to carry these crosses by ourselves. Christ is always by our side, helping us to carry the Cross, loving us and filling us with his grace.
We are not to imagine, however, that a saint is one who constantly triumphs in his efforts to live virtuously and to live a spirit of sacrifice. The saints were human, just like us. They had their victories and defeats. The difference is that they did not give up. As St. Josemaria tells us: The saints are those who struggle right to the end of their lives, who always get up each time they stumble, each time they fall, and courageously embark on their way once more with humility, love and hope. (Furrow no. 186)
So, another hint at what sanctity is: it is to be transformed in Christ, to become another Christ through the sanctifying action of the Holy Spirit, corresponding to divine grace by removing the obstacles (our laziness, sensuality, pride, greed, etc.) that impede the Holy Spirit’s work. And this hint links up to the first one. God created us so that we could become another Christ. So, to fulfill the purpose for which God created us is to become another Christ.
But the question remains. In a practical sense, what does sanctity require of me on a day to day basis? What does it mean to be another Christ or to be transformed in Christ?
If we dwell on the figure of Christ, two points stand out. On the one hand, he was always doing the will of His Father God (my food is to do the will of him who sent me, to accomplish his work). Christ’s whole life was one of obedience to the will of His Father. He was always uniting his will to that of his Father (not my will but thine be done). So, to be another Christ is to strive to do the will of our Father God at all times.
On the other hand, Christ’s whole life was one of love. Love for God His Father and love for all men to the point of dying for them. He never sought Himself in anything that He did. So, to be another Christ is to love our Father God above all things and to love one another as Christ loved us – completely, without any limits.
And once again, these two come together. Because the general will of God our Father is that we love Him and love others in Him (the two Great Commandments). He reveals to us how to do this throughout our life.
So, love is the key to the question of sanctity. In a sense, sanctity is really the fullness of charity. It is living in intimate, loving communion with God which expresses itself in a total, self-giving, committed love to others. As we saw above, God is a Trinity of persons, an eternal communion of self-giving love. So, made in God’s image, our call to be transformed in Christ entails making a loving gift of ourselves to others. Our life should be a great adventure of love, a great love story. And, of course, living in this way leads to the hundredfold, a great joy, a deep happiness that those who do not seek to lead this kind of life can never know.
On a day to day basis what does it mean to do the will of God?
It means handing control of our life over to Him. Being detached from any achievements or success that we would like to obtain, from any plans or projects, from any material possessions, our reputation, our health, our time, our comfort, etc. Of course, we can and should enjoy the good things of life and can look forward to them. But we should be ready to abandon any of these if we see that they do not correspond to God’s will for us, and we should be just as happy whether we are able to engage in them or not. And we do not do this in order to earn God’s love, but rather to express our love and gratitude for all that our Father God has done for us.
It means discerning at each moment what God’s will is for us and trying to accomplish it, knowing that we can only do so with the help of grace. And we don’t do this in order to merit salvation or God’s love. God’s love and salvation are absolutely free and gratuitous. Christ won salvation for us on the Cross. We cannot merit it.
In all this it is important to see ourselves as little children, toddlers, before Our Father God. We mustn’t take ourselves too seriously and we should learn to laugh at ourselves and at our meager efforts to correspond to grace. Those efforts should be filled with cheerfulness, optimism and good humour, realizing that before God we are like a small child, weak and incapable of doing anything without the help of Our Father God. So, we should never suffer any performance anxiety. When we realize that we have been selfish or lazy or proud, doing our will and not God’s, we should repent, certainly. But we should also react with a sense of humour, laughing at our paltry efforts to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in the work of our sanctification. Those are moments to humbly return to God and tell him, You see, I’ve blown it again. I need your help in order to be faithful and do your will. Those moments are our credentials to ask for more grace with humility.
So, on a day to day basis we should imitate Christ, doing the will of our Father God by loving others, giving ourselves to them and forgetting about ourselves. And we love others by living the moral virtues in their regard, such as prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance, but also virtues like chastity, sincerity, industriousness, generosity and spirit of service, gratitude, cheerfulness, integrity, order, humility, self-discipline, respect, to name but a few. But it is not necessary to keep all these and other virtues in mind all the time as though they are a list of duties. It is a question of loving others and seeing at each moment how we can give good example and express our love. A loving husband and father does not try to keep in mind a list of thirty virtues to be living all the time. He truly loves his wife and children, and that love naturally expresses itself in acts of virtue with them.
So, a saint is one who struggles to put to death the old man of concupiscence and put on Christ. He is one who tries not to think of himself, who has handed control of his life over to God and who seeks to do the will of God in all things, as Christ did, loving God and loving others, knowing that all this is the work of the Holy Spirit and of grace and is not his own doing. He is one who allows God’s love to penetrate him and cooperates with that love instead of resisting it. He is one who loves God and loves others and expresses that love in all he does. Like Christ we are called to empty ourselves (Phil 2:7), annihilate the old man, the selfish man, the man of passions, the sensual man, and put on the New Man, Jesus Christ.
So sanctity is not a series of rules and obligations. It is requiting God’s great love for us by loving him in return as a good son of his, and loving others in God. It is seeking at each moment of the day to be a good son, pleasing to his Father by doing the will of God. It is seeing each and everything we do, no matter how small and apparently insignificant, as an opportunity to express our love of God by doing it for love of God and in order to give glory to God. It is not trying to do more things every day. It is doing the same things every day with more love. This is how the saints we have known have acted: JPII, Mother Theresa, St. Josemaria. Their whole life was a life of love of God, and their only concern was to do the will of God. And that love for God and others inspired them how to act in each situation they found themselves in. So their unity of live meant loving God and others in each situation in which they found themselves.
- Pope John-Paul II, Homily, January 28, 1979 ↩︎
Article by Anthony Schratz
Photo by Dawid Zawiła on Unsplash
