We have been created for greatness, that is, we have been created for Jesus.

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time June 27th, 2010

Our readings today point out what God demands of those who desire to follow His ways, from Elisha in the Old Testament to the disciples of Jesus in the New. The demand of God for His followers is really a call to Holiness. This call has been issued by God from the most ancient of times-“be holy as the Lord your God is holy.” In our own day, especially through the Second Vatican Council, God again gives this “universal Call to Holiness,” to all believers, young and old and in between.

Unfortunately, however, so many think holiness as a negative, as entailing a loss of freedom. In other words, they think holiness is basically life minus the fun. There was a recent survey given to a group of 5th graders, that I think illustrates this very well.

In this survey the 5th graders were asked to rank in order, the desirability of 35 listed careers. They were given such choices as doctor, teacher, lawyer and others. They were asked to list in order which ones they most wanted to be. Interestingly, one of the 35 vocations listed was saint. Any idea where saint was listed by these boys and girls?.... Sadly, it was second to the last—thirty-fourth! The only less desirable position was that of a…garbage collector. (No disrespect intended to Garbage collectors, even they can become great saints). When asked why saint was listed so low, the children said that being a saint was a negative, unhappy life.

Our Gospel today gives us the same choice as the survey of 5th graders. Each one of us is basically being asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up? Unlike the fifth Graders, today God is asking each one of us to answer, “I want to be a saint, I want to be holy!”

First we must ask the question, what is a saint- what does it mean to be holy? Well holiness is surely not something we can directly measure…we can’t weight this person or that person to see if their holy. Holiness instead is measured by how much we love God. Yes, we show our love for God by how we live our lives on the outside, but first and foremost our love for God is a disposition of our heart. Let me give you an example to illustrate what I mean.

St. Therese of Lisieux, also known as the little flower, on the outside seemed to be an ordinary nun living in her convent. On the outside there was really nothing special about her…saints in the real world do not have a heavenly look on their face, nor a halo over their head. St. Therese was so ordinary on the outside, that when the investigation started for her cause for sainthood, the nuns who knew her were rather shocked. Her?, they said. “There was nothing special about her!” She just did not meet any of the definitions of holiness that those nuns could see. Yet, her writings revealed a heart which was on fire with the love of God. She desired so very strongly and intensely to love God over and above all else. And so she did and became holy, became a great, in fact the greatest of saints. She did everything for love of God, even acts as mundane as scrubbing the floor. She taught that God doesn't expect us to do great things only small things with great love...this is sanctity.

Now that we have understood that holiness first and foremost consists in the love of God, and doing everything for love of Him, we discover what it really means to be a saint. It all begins with the heart, with desire. One saint said, “If we are honest, the reason we are all not already saints is because we really don't desire to be a saint.” We human beings too often instead desire pleasure, wealth, health and financial security, we think these things will bring us freedom..happiness. However, even when we have these things, we are still miserable. Look at the super rich and famous- are they the super happy? Would any one of us here really liked to have gone through what Tiger Woods recently went through?

And so we discover in the so often miserable lives of the rich and famous, that if we truly want to be free and happy, our first and greatest desire must be to love God and to love Him so much that we want to be a great saint. Again, a story from the life of St. Therese: She did not want to just barely get into heaven, as if it were the last pew in the Church. She never said, “I desire to be mediocre and lukewarm.” No, she desired to be not only a saint, but a great saint. She desired it with all her heart. She looked at all of the vocations within the Church- she wondered what she should be when she grew up- she wanted to be the greatest missionary, the greatest mystic, the greatest evangelist, the greatest one to help the poor. In the end, she desired to be love in the Church. And so, it is no accident that she is not only a great saint, but one of only two women to be named a doctor of the church because of the heights of her holiness.

Yes, it is true there is a negative in our answering God’s call for us to be holy. At least it appears to be a negative at first. Each and every one of us is being asked, demanded to give up anything that we cling to and love more than Jesus. How do we know if we are attached to something, and so love something more than Jesus? Sometimes this questions helps to clarify what I mean, “What is it in this life that we can’t live with out? If we answered with anything but Jesus, this thing is a possession we must rid our heart of.

We are to let go of it, however, only because things can never bring us true happiness, only Jesus can bring us true happiness. We let go of lesser things only to obtain something, Someone…much greater—God Himself; and in the end obtain all other things besides. You see, Jesus doesn’t want us to set our hearts on things that eventually pass away, He wants us to set our heart on Him, He who will never pass away. Our hearts were made for Him and not for things (things are only to be use to help us to draw closer to Jesus). We have been created for greatness, that is, we have been created for Jesus.

Back to St. Therese for an example, she let go of all her possessions in this life in order to obtain her Jesus and she became a saint, but far from this leading to a negative, unhappy life, as the fifth graders believed, she like all saints was incredibly happy, with a out of this world happiness. Mother Teresa of Calcutta in our times echoes the same thing. She lived as the poorest of the poor; she lived in a situation we would find abhorrent- yet she was the most joyful of persons. People who came in contact with her were absolutely overwhelmed by how joyful she was; they saw Jesus in her.

Now, I am not saying that we all must physically get rid of all that we possess, as did St. Therese and Mother Theresa and become a religious or monk. What I am saying, again, that interiorly, we must free our heart of all that we have placed before Jesus. We are to “let go” of our possessions, our idols, in order to obtain, like St Therese and Mother Theresa, the supreme possession which is Jesus Himself, He from Whom all good things come.

So now maybe this saint thing, this holiness thing seems more attractive to us, but what is it that still holds our heart back, what still keeps us from giving our whole self to Jesus? Perhaps, we think that holiness is not for lay people- if I desire to be Holy, then I have to be a priest or nun; its easy for you to talk about holiness father, after all, you’re a priest. Someone recently told me a parishioner was talking about me and said, “That Father Lange he wants us to be as holy as He is…I responded by saying, Good God No!, I want you to be holier than I am… Holiness is for everyone, there are no exceptions. In the Gospels, Jesus called all to come follow Him in Holiness. Many saints in our Church were lay people- starting with the early martyrs, who were almost all lay people.

Perhaps, in the end, we’re just plain afraid to desire to be holy. If I desire to be holy, it means I have to follow Jesus along the same path he trod and so I must pick up the cross and follow Him. This causes us to quake in fear- we are so weak. I think this is a natural reaction- we all fear suffering. Yet, look at our lives- suffering is already there. There is not one person in this Church today who has a suffering free life; there is not one person here who will escape suffering no matter how many possessions and money he may have.

So, if we decide we need to be Holy and to love God above all else, we can desire to be a great saint. Right here, right now in our parish and in our family- we can desire to be a saint- in the ordinary circumstances we find ourselves in everyday life. The grace of God is there for us, we just gotta wan it as the saying goes. We have to confess that we have not loved Jesus the way we should have in the past, but now, with the help of His grace, we want to love Jesus over and above all else to possess Him fully. This is what it means to be a saint; and this is the greatest vocation in life, this is where, and only where true and lasting happiness lies.

In our Holy Mass today, may we all desire to be great saints. We will receive the fullness of grace in Holy Communion to help us, for in Holy Communion we receive God Himself-Jesus, His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. May our Holy Communion today be an occasion where all our desires are met by the God that we receive hidden in the little white host.