Jul 4 Sat
Is holiness for everyone?
Pope Leo XIV explains:
God spoke to the people of Israel: “Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.” This divine call echoes down the ages.
Holiness is neither one option among many nor an abstract ideal, for it involves the very identity of every person who wishes to share in the life of the risen One. Holiness is sharing in Christ’s mystery; God invites us to share in his own holiness.
When He calls us to be holy as He is holy, He indicates that the path we must follow involves being fashioned after his own Heart.
The holiness He asks of us is a trustful abandonment, allowing ourselves to be transformed by the Holy Spirit. Yet we are called to share in God’s own holiness, but we carry this treasure in earthen vessels. We are limited and imperfect, often weak and weary, and at times wounded. How can such a vulnerable human heart respond to such a high calling?
A journey toward union, the union of our heart with Christ’s Heart, is not an experience reserved for a select few; rather, it is a sacramental and Eucharistic journey that must unfold each day.
Let us remain united to Christ in everything – in all that we do and in all that happens to us every day. Then the holiness that we have sought in vain through our isolated efforts will reveal itself for what it is: a response to the grace that precedes, sustains, and transforms us.
We must be contemplative in the midst of action, merciful and faithful in times of trial, and joyful in the gift of ourselves.
In an age marked by division and fear, we must be builders of peace and witnesses of the tenderness of the Good Shepherd who knows how to gather the scattered and heal the wounded.
Our zeal is not restlessness, but the overflowing of a love. The Heart of Christ is the heart of the saints. The response to the call to holiness lies not so much in works of asceticism or striving for perfection –though these are necessary– but in trusting adherence to the love revealed in Jesus’ pierced Heart. Holiness is not an inaccessibly distant or detached perfection, but a love that gives itself even to the point of being wounded and so can become a source of mercy and life.
We are called to a relationship with God that does not distance us from others but brings us closer to everyone – shaping patient and tender hearts, capable of closeness, compassion, and listening. Thus, it is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us.
Such holiness cannot be lived in isolation. Saint Augustine reminds us, “How shall we avoid finding ourselves in darkness? By loving our brothers. What is the proof that we love our brothers? This: that we do not fracture unity and that we practice charity.”
Renew each day your “Here I am” before Christ’s pierced Heart. Give yourselves entirely to him, so that you may love his people with the same love with which He loves them.