WE ARE ALL CALLED to holiness. The Scriptures first introduce this call in the Old Testament when God commands the Israelites to be faithful to His covenant and obey His laws, making them His holy people and nation (cf. Ex. 19:5-6). Jesus reaffirmed this command to be holy and expanded the call to all people in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. He taught the crowds to be children of our Heavenly Father by making the Beatitudes their way of life. Using the metaphors of light and salt, Jesus taught that all children of God are called to be His witnesses in the world through their faithfulness and good deeds. Children resemble their parents; therefore, we, too, must “be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt. 5:48).
The Church continues to proclaim the universal call to holiness, specifically in the Second Vatican Council’s dogmatic constitution, “Lumen Gentium,” chapter five: “all the faithful of Christ of whatever rank or status, are called to the fullness of the Christian life and to the perfection of charity; by this holiness as such a more human manner of living is promoted in this earthly society.”
Today, this teaching is not as novel or unfamiliar as it once was; however, how we are living it out always needs to be examined and deepened. Servant of God Guglielmo Giaquinta, the founder of the Pro Sanctity Movement, offered this insight about how we can live out our call to holiness in daily life. He outlined three dimensions of holiness that focus our mission fields in which we are called to live our call to holiness.
The first mission field of holiness is our personal relationship with God, known as the vertical dimension. This conforms with the first great commandment given by Jesus, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind (Mt. 22:37).
We can grow in the vertical dimension of holiness by prioritizing daily prayer time so we can intentionally share our thoughts, feelings and desires with the Lord and learn to listen to His voice in Scripture and in the intimacy of our hearts. We grow in love for God by frequent reception of the sacraments and asking Our Lady to help us grow in trust in God’s love for each of us.
The second mission field of holiness are the relationships we have with our family, friends and local communities. This is also known as the horizontal dimension of holiness. It follows the second great commandment of Jesus, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself ” (Mt. 22:39). To grow in the horizontal dimension of holiness, we can look for ways to serve our family and friends with simple acts of charity, patience and sacrifice. We can also pray for them, learn to listen and accept their limitations while encouraging them to trust the Lord. When the vertical and horizontal dimensions of holiness are united and lived out well in our lives, we will witness the love of Christ to the world. A vertical and horizontal line forms a cross, and the cross of Christ proclaims the Lord’s call to be his witnesses and, therefore, His saints. This leads us to the third mission field of holiness which is the societal dimension. The cross of Christ and the truth that it proclaims is meant to radiate into the world, which is done through us. To grow in the societal dimension of holiness, we can consider praying in public before meals, hanging a crucifix or holy image in our workplace, blessing people who cut us off in traffic and reaching out to the poor in our neighborhoods.
We celebrate the feast of all saints at the beginning of November and the Church commemorates the saints, known and unknown, who faithfully responded to God’s call in all three of these mission fields. Let us ask for the intercession of all the saints to pray that we can be Christ’s witnesses of love and mercy to a world that needs to see Him.