Holiness in our helplessness

WE know that holiness is for everyone. That’s what God

wants us to be, since we are his image and likeness, children of his.

He wants us to be like him. “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is

perfect,” Christ told us very clearly. (Mt 5,48)

             But we many times think that to be holy and perfect, one

should be spotlessly clean of any sin, defect and error. To be sure,

to be holy has aspects of these qualities. We have to try our best

that we be good all the time, productive and fruitful in our

endeavours, active in the service of God, the Church and society.

  

            But holiness should not be seen only in that light. Such

understanding of holiness would make it an achievable goal only for a

few. It becomes a concern only to the elite who happen to have

qualities favourable to these aspects. It can only become the domain

of the well-endowed, the strong-willed, and even the superheroes, if

not the superhumans.

  

            Holiness has another side. It can and should be achieved

in the middle of our weaknesses, our stupidities and follies, our

mistakes and sins, our helplessness, as long as we know how to relate

them to God.

  

            We cannot deny that in spite of our best efforts, which

actually can be a very relative thing since what is best to one is

only good to another, we many times find ourselves helpless in the

face of our own weaknesses and the strong temptations around.

  

            We cannot deny that in this world, no matter how brilliant

and gifted we are, we act like little children who really would not

know everything that affects him, much less, how to cope with the many

mysteries in life.

   

            Let us always remember that cry of St. Paul when he

noticed two conflicting laws raging within himself, the law of the

mind and the law of the flesh. (cfr. Rom 7,22-24) Many times, we find

ourselves in this situation, and we do not know exactly what to do.

  

            I would say that on these occasions, we just have to

suffer our weaknesses, and everything else that are allied to them—our

stupidities and follies, our helplessness, etc.—in the way Christ

suffered in his passion and death. On that occasion too, Christ made

himself helpless against all the malice of man, so he could teach us

how to deal with our own helplessness.

  

            We know that Christ made himself helpless to obey the will

of his Father for our own salvation. He bore all our sins. This should

be the mentality to have when we are reduced to our own state of

helplessness.

  

            We should not just suffer our own weaknesses, etc., alone.

We should suffer them with Christ, and in that way we convert them

into a real path to sanctity. In fact, we can say that the more we

suffer, the more chances we have of identifying ourselves more

intimately with Christ, who achieved our redemption through his own

suffering and death.

  

            Let us always remember that when we suffer and die with

Christ, we will also resurrect with him. (cfr. Rom 6,8) Suffering and

death do not have the last word in our life. It is redemption, eternal

life of bliss with God and with everybody else, that has the last

word.

  

            We need to give a full and more fair picture of how

holiness can be achieved both in good and bad times. We should not

focus on one without the other, because in that way we would be

distorting the true nature of holiness and debasing the power of God.

We need to be more open-minded about this issue and avoid stereotyping

holiness in some concrete form.

  

            Holiness can be achieved in many and even infinite ways.

The only thing necessary is to relate everything to God.