An exhortation to today’s call to holiness made me reflect on this word: Holiness. “My modest goal is to repropose the call to holiness”, says the Pope in Gaudete et Exsultate. It may seem simple, but I remember perfectly the day when I felt for the first time that that holiness was also for me: this has changed my life!
In my story I have always admired the saints, but sincerely towards them my relationship was never emulation but pure devotion. Since childhood I have learned to relate with the saints as intercessors rather than as models of life to be imitated. I admired them – he placed the tau of San Francisco in his neck and read the “Prayer of Saint Francis” that had embroidered my grandmother, attached to the wall of my room – I saw them as people who had an extraordinary strength to love only God.
The saints can be our friends
In Shalom I learned to know the saints and to relate with them as friends, I remember my first friend, St. Peter, and the second, St. Therese of the Child Jesus. With the Pope I learned that: “The saints now in God’s presence preserve their bonds of love and communion with us.” (GE, 4)
Holiness was for me too!
Another thing I learned from Shalom was that holiness was for me too! What a surprise! I remember the T-shirts created by the Youth Project: “Our goal is Holiness”; I did not think I would be able to. But I also learned that with my own strength I can not! I discovered that being called by God does not mean being strong or capable, but simply He is giving me His grace so that I can respond to His call day by day. And with the Pope: “Let the grace of your baptism bear fruit in a path of holiness. […] Do not be dismayed, for the power of the Holy Spirit enables you to do this, and holiness, in the end, is the fruit of the Holy Spirit in your life” (see Galatians 5: 22-23)”. (GE, 15)
Without prayer there is no holiness
Since I can not, I thought at least I should have been a priest. I discovered in Shalom that I did not need to be a priest to be a saint, but I needed to pray, pray and pray. That without prayer “there is no New Work”, that we pray when we get up, before eating, before the meetings, before the fraternity; in the prayer group, in the chapel, but also in my room, in the bus and everywhere. I learned that God wanted my fidelity every day, even in the little I could give. Trying to be faithful I learned to love God and by loving God I began to desire to be a missionary. From the Pope I learned that prayer is what makes me hope to continue: «When you feel the temptation to cling to your weakness, raise your eyes to the Crucifix and say: “Lord, I am a poor man, but you can perform the miracle to make me a little better”» (GE, 15)
To sum up, I learned from the Pope and from Shalom that God calls me to be holy, but it is not the fruit of my strength. It is only possible through prayer.
I learned many other things. I would have much more to say about the exhortation of Pope Francis, but these were the ones I wanted to share in the first chapter of Gaudete et Exultate.
Are you afraid of being unhappy? I conclude with a sentence worthy of mention, quoted by the Pope in Gaudete et Exultate: “There is only one sadness in the world, that of not being saints.”
Translation: Jhoana Climacosa
Revision: Gabriela Gois