356. Twenty-first Friday of Ordinary Time

Meditations no. 324 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Holiness, a lifelong venture.

This is the will of God, your sanctification. This is how St Paul proclaims to the Thessalonians the greatness of their Christian vocation. Personal holiness is everyone’s duty, but for us it is reaffirmed by our vocation to the Work, which brings with it a lifelong “commitment of love”. Fidelity for us therefore requires a constant and loving effort to attain holiness. For nearly thirty years, our Father said in 1957, God has been putting into my heart the desire to help people of every condition and background to understand that ordinary life can be holy and full of God. Our Lord is calling us to sanctify the ordinary tasks of every day, for Christian perfection is to be found precisely there.

We need to struggle, to rectify a little each day, by setting specific and attainable goals. Be strong, and show yourself a man, and keep the charge of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, and his commandments … that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn, that the Lord may fulfil his word. This is what God asks of us: effort, the readiness to improve. Mistakes do not matter when we have the good will to begin again, time after time. The ascetical struggle is not something negative and therefore hateful, but rather a joyful affirmation. It is a sport.

A good sportsman doesn’t fight to gain just one victory, and that at the first attempt. He has to build himself up for it, training over a long period of time, calmly and confidently. He keeps trying again and again, and if he doesn’t succeed at the first attempt, he keeps on trying with determination until the obstacle is overcome.

God asks us to show our love through the daily effort to fulfil our obligations, the little duties of each moment. Holiness doesn’t consist in doing increasingly difficult things, but in doing them with increasingly greater love.

If we act out of love, we will feel the need to do what we should at every moment and reject the tendency to comfort-seeking. Rectifying will be easy; we will be hungry to give ourselves, hungry for work, not sparing any effort or sacrifice. It is well worth being generous, being eager to give ourselves, even though we know that our love will always fall short. Knowing that our daily struggle pleases God spurs us to begin anew day after day.

Saying yes, without setting limits to grace.

“In medio virtus” - Virtue is to be found in the mean, the wise saying goes, warning us against extremism. But do not make the mistake of turning that advice into a euphemism for your own comfort, calculation, tepidity, easy-going approach, lack of idealism and mediocrity.

Meditate on these words of Sacred Scripture: “Would that you were cold or hot. But because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth.”

We are on the path to holiness. While this is already a lot, it is not enough. The fullness of Christian life requires a continual resolve to improve: only in this way will we be faithful. As St Bernard says: whoever does not aspire to be better does not deserve the name “good”. The moment a person no longer desires to be better, that person stops being good.

We cannot be content with what we have already accomplished. Forgetting what lies behind, St Paul wrote, and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature be thus minded; and if in anything you are otherwise minded, God will reveal that also to you. Commenting on this passage, St Augustine said: In order that God may reveal it to us, let us not linger over what we have achieved. But let our progress lead us to go further.

You see we are wayfarers and you ask: “What does it mean to travel on this path?” I will put it very briefly: “It means to progress.” And I say “to progress” so that you do not misunderstand me and grow lazy. Always progress, brethren. Examine yourselves sincerely every day, without vainglory or complacency, because there is no one inside you obliging you to blush or boast. Examine yourself, and don’t be content with what you are, if you want to become what you still are not. For as soon as you become complacent, your progress stops. If you say “enough”, you are lost.

Love is generous, it gives without stint. If we put limits on our dedication, we would stifle our love, the charity that is the essence and bond of perfection. We would have strayed from the path. Seeking holiness is not just an option opened to us, but God’s express command. To disregard his will would mean we had failed in life, supernaturally and humanly. Meditate upon this slowly: I am asked for very little compared to how much I am being given.

Maintaining our initial fervour.

When we took our first steps on the path of interior life, the wings of youth gave us the fervour to overcome any temptation to be calculating or mean. But when this initial fire later cools, we need the maturity which the virtues bring, a more serene but no less ardent zeal for complete self-giving, in order to keep our fervour aflame.

We need to be on guard to ensure that comfort-seeking does not weaken our desire to become saints, to the point where we start settling for the bare minimum. Our Father put us on the alert: If your selfishness leads you away from the ordinary desire for the holy and healthy well-being of mankind, if you count the cost or if you are not moved by the wretched material or moral condition of your neighbour, you force me to reproach you strongly, so that you can do something about it. If you do not feel a holy fraternity with your fellow men, and you live on the margin of the great Christian family, you are just a poor foundling.

The proof of our love, of our firm and irrevocable decision to become saints, comes when the monotony of repetitive days threatens to cloud our best efforts with indifference. There is merit and heroism when we rekindle our initial enthusiasm with the fire of love each day, despite difficulties on the way, and the fatigue of a thousand repetitive days. The same things day after day, year after year, and doing them until we die! Here is true faithfulness, a true work of love: it’s not heroic to be faithful once in a while, or for periods of time, but over a lifetime, keeping our first fervour burning bright.

It is not enough to endure, to keep stoically to the course, putting up with daily hardships. The spirit of the Work requires us to do the same things every day eagerly, with an ever-youthful spirit. To persevere is to continue advancing with joy, in a sporting spirit, drawing strength from our very weakness. Every day we need to renew our dedication, expressed in our daily actions: the Norms, hours of work, family life… And amid the succession of similar actions and circumstances, we discover the loving tension of daily duty. We try to make, out of everyday prose, heroic verse, something always new, with the freshness love brings.

Ever since you said “Yes”, our Father wrote, time has broadened your horizons, giving them new and brighter colours and making them more beautiful every day. But you have to continue saying “Yes”.

Our Lady smiles as she sees our renewed efforts, our hearts full of youthful enthusiasm, but strengthened by experience.