Holiness at your fingertips

OBVIOUSLY, we have to make a distinction between the state of holiness and the process of making oneself holy. I refer more to the latter, which actually is what is needed for us to be truly holy.

Sanctity and sanctification should go hand in hand, and if we are not yet in the former, then we should work out the latter.

This matter should already come out in the open, especially in the media, because it is actually everybody’s concern. In fact, we can say it is the be-all and end-all of our life. “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul,” Christ’s words that practically articulate this need of ours.

In fact, insofar as God is concerned, this is his will. St. Paul says so, “This is the will of God, your sanctification.” (1 Thes 4,3) And because of that will, God is giving us everything, including he himself in his Son who became man, Jesus Christ, so that we can truly obtain sanctity.
Again, St. Paul clearly reassures us of this truth: “He that spared not even his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how has he not also, with him, given us all things.” (Rom 8,32)

This is a truth we have to learn to feel at home with. Very often, when we think of sanctity and sanctification, we feel that things just depend on us, and thus, given the enormity of the challenge and the task, we tend to get discouraged and to forget the whole thing.

We have to overcome that misconception. God is actually giving us everything. In fact, He is giving us nothing and no one else other than his very own self in Christ. That’s why there’s such thing as constant stream of actual graces so we can manage to do good in spite of our weakness and mistakes.

If we persist in corresponding to these actual graces, then we can be led to so deep a conversion that we can receive what is known as sanctifying grace that puts us into the state of holiness.

And after conversion, we still need to continue struggling to keep that state of sanctity intact. “Conversion is a matter of a moment,” a saint once said, “but perseverance is a work of a lifetime.”

We need to correspond to these actual graces that God sends us in abundance. It is these actual graces that enable us to sanctify ourselves as we go through all the details of our day, usually small and insignificant humanly speaking.

In this regard, we need to explode the myth that this business of sanctification can be carried out only during extraordinary occasions, as when we have to be martyred or sent to far-away missions, working with difficult people, etc.

Or that sanctification or the state of holiness itself is a matter of being canonized, placed on an altar if not given a monument in some public square.

Sanctification can be done and ought to be pursued anytime, anywhere, making use of what we have at the moment, whether it is something good or bad. This is what is meant by holiness at your fingertips, attained by showing our faith and love for God and others in the little things of each day.

If we persist in this kind of behavior, we can truly achieve a sanctity more heroic and meaningful than that achieved through pubic martyrdom. I believe there is more merit in a sanctity that is attained in a hidden way than that acquired before the public eye.

Everything can be an occasion to be holy. It’s a matter of how we are corresponding to God’s grace. If we are attacked by laziness, for example, we become holy when we make the effort to overcome it, whenwe start to pick up things to do, or simply just perform our duty of the moment, whatever it may be.

When we are visited by lust, greed, envy, or any temptation, we become holy when we do our best to fight them off. When we fall, we still can easily become holy when we are prompt also to ask for forgiveness.

Holiness at your fingertips is also a matter of just doing whatever duty you have at the moment, and doing it with love, with generosity and magnanimity. It may just be studying, or watching over a sick person, or doing household chores, but if done with love for God, you can already achieve holiness. Sainthood is just a death away!