FAUSTO GOMEZ OP
Many Christians still think that holiness is for the saints, those extraordinary women and men closest to Christ, the Holy One. Holiness is not for them. Wrong! All the followers of Christ, in particular, are called to holiness, to become saints. Jesus tells us: Be holy as your Father is holy.
What caught my attention most in Rejoice and Be Glad is Pope Francis’ teaching on holiness as love of God and love of all neighbors – one love – primarily, love of the needy neighbors.
Love of God means the love given to us by God. Kempis: “There is no holiness where you have withdrawn your hand, O Lord… For if you forsake us, we sink and perish; but if you visit us, we rise up and live again” (Imitation of Christ). Holiness is fed by prayer and community life, worship, adoration, the Eucharist …, and silence. Silence is needed to listen to God’s voice: “Unless we listen, all our words will be nothing but useless chatter.”
The attitude of listening “entails obedience to the Gospel as the ultimate standard, but also to the Magisterium that guards it.” True discernment of the Spirit aids the Church, the community of Jesus’ disciples, to see the light of the newness of the Gospel, and not just to apply and repeat what was done in the past, for “what was useful in a context may not be in a different one.” Prayerful discernment will liberate people from rigidity, which is out of place “in the perennial ‘today’ of the risen Lord” (Pope Francis, GE 150, 173).
The followers of Christ ought to listen not only to the Lord, to the Church and to others, but also to reality, that is, to the “signs of the times,” or to “what takes place around us” (cf. GE, no. 172).
We listen to the voices of others when we possess true love of neighbor, which is universal, and “passionate and effective commitment to the neighbor.” This commitment includes recognizing the dignity of each human being and respecting the fundamental human rights of everyone.
Love of the needy neighbors is the priority, the distinguishing characteristic of all the followers of Jesus, “the great criterion” of holiness also today. It is Christ’s call in the poor to all Christians and people of good will (cf. Mt 25:35-36). This call implies concretely to defend the unborn and born children, and equally, the lives of all the poor: the destitute, the abandoned and the vulnerable infirm, and [first time I hear this piercing expression] “elderly exposed to covert euthanasia” (GE 101), migrants, and strangers.
Holiness “is not swooning in mystic rapture,” but in practicing the preferential love for the poor. St. Thomas Aquinas writes: “The noblest deeds are the works of mercy, even more than our acts of worship.” This special love of the needy neighbor is not – cannot be – opposed to love of God in prayer and worship: I don’t believe in holiness without prayer, Pope Francis says. On the contrary, authentic prayer transforms us in such a way that it urges us to practice mercy as almsgiving and forgiving. Truly, the primacy belongs to our relationship with God, but we cannot forget that the ultimate criterion on which our lives will be judged is what we have done for others (GE 147, 104). Jesus’ words: What you do to the least of my brothers and sisters, you do it to me” (Mt 25:40, 45). In this context, Pope Francis invites us with St. Luke to live “a plain and austere life” and to share with the most in need (GE 70).
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HOLINESS MEANS LOVE OF GOD AND LOVE OF ALL NEIGHBORS.
PRIMARILY, LOVE OF THE NEEDY NEIGHBORS.
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Carrying our personal cross and helping others carry their heavy cross is an essential element of holiness, perfection, and happiness. St. John of the Cross says that many people love the graces and gifts that come from holiness, but when they realize that the gate to open holiness is the cross, they do not pursue it: “For the gate may one enter into these riches of his (God’s) wisdom is the narrow gate of the cross.”
To be able to carry our own cross we need to have our passions under basic control: “The body under the spirit and the spirit under God” (St. Augustine). Ascetism, or mortification, or fasting is good not merely as a healthy dietary means but mainly as a good and needy means to achieve holiness, to became a saint. Temperate ascetism, or moderate personal discipline helps us keep our concupiscence, our emotions and passions, our natural urges at bay. “Ascetism does not deny the urges nor considers them evil. Our nature is inclined to ‘self-indulgence’. To put self-control is necessary. Sacrifices help us be free, that is, ‘masters of ourselves’, of one’s impulses and circumstances; ascetism brings them into proper order, an order that is achieved through the practice of virtues” (Romano Guardini).
Our main problem regarding our call to holiness is walking the talk, that is, practicing love. Walking the talk on holiness means witnessing that Jesus is alive in our daily life, our relations and occupations, loving God and all neighbors more deeply, primarily the poor neighbors. Witnessing Christ is the evangelizing mission of the believers in Jesus, who is the Son of God and of Mary: God-Man, and the Man-for-Others.
On the journey of holiness – the pilgrimage of our life – what really matters is Jesus, and what truly matters is love, which is usually expressed in little details of daily life, in small gestures like giving a smile, or a handshake, or a hug or a kiss, or a flower … Little expressions of love in our daily life: We may say “Please,” “Sorry,” “Thank you,” “May I help you,” “Congratulations.”…These and/or others cultural expressions of good education and loving courtesy are not just good manners, but acts of the virtue of courtesy, which St. Francis of Assisi called the little sister of charity.
Brother and sister in Christ, have a prayerful and joyful journey of holiness by the Way – Jesus – practicing love of God, neighbor, poor neighbor! Reward? Happiness here and hereafter: HEAVEN.
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