François-Marie Léthel, in volume 23 of the series The Council Notebooks, helps us understand something that is easy and difficult at the same time: we are all called to be saints.
This concept may now seem well established and familiar to most people, but perhaps not everyone knows that it was the Second Vatican Council itself which, in Chapter V of Lumen gentium, opened a new chapter in the life of the Church: that of the universal call to holiness.
What is holiness?
Well, we are all called to be saints, but what does that mean?
In the popular imagination, suffering, penance, difficulties, sacrifices… may immediately come to mind—in short, all “negative” realities that make life less than pleasant.
But that is not the case! Walking the path of holiness and responding to the vocation to holiness means living in love, in the fullness of love, allowing ourselves to be transformed by love. It means, therefore, making our lives an authentic masterpiece of beauty, capable of illuminating and enlivening the world around us through the simple witness of everyday life.
A reality offered to everyone
Holiness is nothing other than the perfection of charity, that is, the fullness of the great and true love for which every human heart deeply thirsts.
It is neither an illusion nor an abstract and unattainable ideal. It is a reality offered to everyone. It is the love of Jesus, divine and human love, the greatest gift of the Holy Spirit.
For this reason, the Church has always venerated the saints, those who are known, beatified or canonized, but also the multitude of all the saints who are celebrated on November 1.
The Council celebrates a new development in the Church’s living Tradition concerning holiness and the saints, opening a new chapter with an incredible increase in the number of beatifications and canonizations of men and women in every state of life, particularly with many examples of holiness among the laity, in marriage and in the family.
Many examples to learn about and draw inspiration from
Through the numerous beatifications and canonizations, we can better understand what holiness truly is: a holiness to which we are all called, close to everyone, accessible and attainable.
We are all invited to join the great “round dance of the saints” painted by Blessed Angelico (if possible, insert the painting), where the saints and angels hold hands and reach out to us to help us too walk towards holiness.
Reading about the lives of the saints and learning about mothers, fathers, families, children, siblings, men and women from every walk of life and every place can open our hearts to seek our own path, our own deeply personal way of responding to Love with love.
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TO GET TO KNOW THE SAINTS
