We Are All Called to be Holy

While teaching a CCD class recently to a group of third- and fourth-graders, I shocked them when I said we are all called to be saints. One student let out a loud “What?!” and the incredulous blank stares on the others confirmed he spoke for the entire class.

I was telling the kids about the life of St. Francis of Assisi, and how God's plan for us is to accomplish our unique mission in life with His help and then enjoy Heaven with Him forever.

The students’ reaction reminded me that perhaps we don't hear often enough about our essential purpose in life: our call to holiness.

On Nov. 1, the Church celebrated one of my favorite feast days: the Solemnity of All Saints. I love it not only because of my special devotion to some of the saints, but because it reminds me of what I could become with the help of God's grace.

As a part of the Communion of Saints, we, the Pilgrim Church on earth, by virtue of our baptism, share in the joy and prayers of the Church Triumphant in Heaven, better known as All Saints. The saints love to intercede for us even more than we like to ask them to pray for us. They want us to make it to Heaven and be with God and them when we die.

The question is: Do we want to go?

As Catholics living in today’s material world, we need to be reminded of the real meaning of life. The Baltimore Catechism taught: “We were created to know, love and serve God in this life, and to be happy with Him in Heaven.” More recently, the Church during Vatican II, in “The Church in the Modern World,” restated this goal as “the universal call to holiness.”

Today, though, the Church has to compete with Facebook, Twitter and PlayStation to get this message across to younger Catholics. And we have to concentrate even more on our true purpose, not being distracted by the daily grind of life.

Like many people, I once assumed that only priests and religious had the responsibility to be holy since most saints in Church history had followed a religious or priestly vocation. Religious achieve their sanctity by serving the Church in their unique ways, or “charisms,” and also by praying for the needs of the Church. Priests are ordained to sanctify the laity by saying Mass and administering the sacraments to us and achieving their salvation in the process.

But we can also become saints – in spite of the daily grind – when we bring Christ into our homes, the workplace and the social arena. That's no easy task and can only be achieved through prayer, the sacraments and reading the Scriptures – the same way the saints did.

Most of us may never be canonized and have the title “saint” added to our names after we die. However, if we keep life’s ultimate purpose in sight at all times, our names will be written in the Book of Life, and the Church and our loved ones will remember us as the faithful departed