THE UNIVERSAL CALL TO HOLINESS
Starting this weekend, the Catholic Church in the U.S. begins National Vocation Awareness Week. It runs from November 1-8. As one Church here in the U.S., we pause this week to reflect on God’s sublime call for each of us whether it be to married life, single blessedness, consecrated life, or the priesthood. This national campaign for vocations is especially directed to our younger generation for them to ponder on the question: To what vocation in life is God calling me to be? The role of the family in cultivating a culture of vocations is crucial since the first seed of faith is usually sown in the family. How are we cultivating a culture of vocations in our families? Here in our parish, we are very blessed to have a very active and dynamic Vocations Committee. We are very grateful for their incredible and wonderful work in reminding us of God’s invitation to collaborate in building up his Kingdom.
I do not think that it’s a mere coincidence that the Church starts this weeklong vocation campaign during the Solemnity of All Saints. Sainthood is the goal of every vocation. Whatever vocation we embrace, the final objective is for us to lead a life of
holiness.
As we celebrated Halloween yesterday with interesting costumes, frightening disguises and masks, we take them off today with the celebration of the Solemnity of All Saints. The best definition of a saint is someone who takes away or removes the different masks that hide our true identity as a child of God. When one commits a sin, the person practically denies his or her true identity and assumes a false image of one self just like wearing a mask. A saint is someone who is at home with his/her real self as created in God’s image and likeness. And what is that real self?
The gospel today provides us a biographical sketch of who a saint is — someone who is able to recognize his/her true identity in relation to God. The beatitudes are the resume or biodata of a saint, which all of us are called to be. These beatitudes are not lofty ideals or concepts of faith that are impossible to attain but, rather, they are keys to our sharing in the eternal life with God. If we look at or analyze the beatitudes, they are actually a summary of the life of Christ - for each of them finds its completion and perfection in Jesus Christ. Who is the most poor in spirit, most meek, most persecuted for the sake of righteous if not Christ himself? The Beatitudes are the blueprint or the road map to heaven. All of these exhortations to us — to become peacemaker, pure in spirit, merciful and steadfast in face of persecution — finds its perfect model on Christ himself. So when Jesus was telling his disciples and us about the beatitudes, it was an invitation to follow him and be like Him. To live the Beatitudes is to live a life of holiness. Pope Benedict XVI in his homily on the Solemnity of All Saints in 2006 had this to say about why we celebrate this feast in the first place. He said “This, then, is the meaning of today's Solemnity: looking at the shining example of the Saints to reawaken within us the great longing to be like them; happy to live near God, in his light, in the great family of God's friends. Being a Saint means living close to God, to live in his family. And this is the vocation of us all.”
The high esteem that we give or accord to the saints does not mean we put them at the same level with God. We do not worship the saints or the statues of the saints (we only worship God) but, we have them in our midst, their pictures and their statues, to
remind us that the call of discipleship and holiness is not something new or we have invented for ourselves – the line up of canonized saints with very diverse backgrounds prove and remind us that holiness of life is attainable whatever vocation we have in life, and there were people from ages past who witnessed and dedicated their lives to the same call and vocation that we are called to live. If they have done it, we can do it as well — we ask for their intercession, and we look up to their lifestyles as models of our own discipleship. Their statues and images, just like the pictures of our family members and monuments of great leaders of our nations, remind us of their heroic virtues, their struggles, and also the joy of having found the most valuable treasure, which is
eternal life.
It is our ultimate call, as baptized, to manifest the glory of God here on earth through our own unique and individual witnessing to the gospel no matter what occupation we may have. And there is no other way to respond to this call than to lead the life of the Beatitudes, which is a lifetime journey, filled with ups and downs. From the list of the beatitudes given to us by Christ himself and looking at our life right now, what value/virtue do we need to work on to better ourselves to be conformed more and more to Christ? Is it mercy? Is it meekness? How about humility? Or our capacity to accept our faults and limitations? If the beatitudes are the roadmap to heaven, where are we now in our journey to sainthood? ~ Fr. Cary