Growing in Sanctity

The next level of our continual conversion is growing in sanctity. But more than being just a step in the process, 'Growing in Sanctity', and the next step, 'Union with God' are our ultimate objectives.

So, let's briefly go back to our beginning. Adam and Eve were created as perfect human beings. Scripture tells us that in the cool of the evening they walked with God. They were created in full communion with God and endowed with every grace. But through their ignorance and disobedience, through their sin, they departed from a life of sanctity and divorced themselves from God's grace. Their sin, and their departure from God's grace, hurled mankind into a abyss of misery from which it was incapable of escaping.

To do for mankind what it could not do for itself, God promised a Savior: a Savior to destroy sin and restore sonship to the human race. But God was not satisfied with just destroying sin, or in providing only enough grace sufficient for our salvation. No, He sent His Son, Jesus, so that we, “might have life and have it more abundantly”1

The abundant life that Jesus brings is a life endowed and enabled by supernatural grace. St. Paul tell us, “your sanctification …this is the Will of God.” 2 But going even further, God did not give sanctifying grace to only a few. Jesus came to sanctify us all. Sanctity is the perfection of Christian life. “[Sanctifying] grace engenders and nourishes a new life of knowledge and love in us which is a participation in the Divine Life.”3

Jesus said, “Be perfect, just as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” 4 Likewise, St. Therese of the Child Jesus said, “The more joyfully souls do [God's] Will, the greater is their perfection.”5 Sanctity does not require doing extraordinary things, but rather fulfilling the duties of our vocations in God's Will. As Pope Pius XI made clear, “Sanctity is seeing the expression of God's Will in every one of my duties, for then everything I do will be an opportunity to submerge myself in God's Love and unite myself to Him.”6 Thus, sanctity comes where we constantly strive to fulfill God's Will through an ardent love, devotion, and charity in all that we do.

Today, several of the 'mega churches' are preaching what has come to be called 'the prosperity gospel'. The premise is that if you turn your life over to God then He will bless you. He will give you a better house and a better job. He will heal your broken marriage, and so forth. What is said is only partially true. Certainly, God wants to heal our broken marriages and broken relationships. However, I would ask, “in this philosophy, are we seeking God's Will, or are we asking God to fulfill our will?

Spiritually speaking, we have two lives: an exterior life and an interior life. And, most of us spend far too much of our time on our exterior life. To live a serious interior life, one that is fully concentrated on seeking God, it is necessary to prevent the outside world from entering our souls and filling it with noise and distractions.

Yes, Jesus does want to bless us. He wants us to prosper, but, most importantly, to prosper in love, in faith, and in our mission as His disciples. While our physical needs do matter, our spiritual lives, our interior lives, are what is truly important.

The question is: 'Can we follow the Will of God in complete abandonment of our own will, and fully trust His Providence? Jesus told St. Faustina to “Paint a picture according to the pattern you see with the signature, 'Jesus, I trust in You'”7 Complete trust in God is fundamental to a life of sanctity. Do we trust Jesus in every aspect of our lives?

Jesus said, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they labor not, neither do they spin. But I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these”.7 And, “Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”8

Sanctity, then, “is something that all souls of good will, even the simplest and most humble can attain, sustained by Divine Assistance. It is the full development in us of the supernatural life, whose beginnings are sanctifying grace, the infused virtues, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit”.9 Sanctity comes in making God's Will our own, uniting ourselves to Him, and trusting completely in His providence.