Mother Teresa once said that God does not require us to be successful (perfect). He expects us to be faithful. I was immediately relieved when I first heard those words many, many years ago. Trying to be perfect is completely exhausting. I can be faithful. It runs in the blood, and as imperfect as we can be, we don't forget who we are and we don't abandon our post (as Christians).
But, there's more to being faithful than just having faith and keeping most of the commandments most of the time. Over the years I've learned (through trial and error) that to have faith is to have
the courage to let God have control. This, I believe, is to yearn for holiness. Wasn't it St. John the Baptist who said "I must decrease so that he (Jesus) might increase."
Thomas a' Kempis (1380-1471) a monk and a priest, is remembered for his book The Imitation of Christ. This book is considered one of the most influential books of spiritual devotion ever written. Here is just a small insert on the yearning for holiness (perfection).
Jesus says: "Dear friend, you should not give up nor lose heart when you hear what the way of perfection is; rather, you should be inspired all the more to reach greater heights - or at least to yearn for them. I wish it were so with you and that you had reached that point at which you were no longer enamored with yourself but stood ready to do my will. Then you would greatly please me and your whole life would pass in happiness and peace. # You still have much to give up, and unless you give it all up for me, holding nothing back, you will not get what you ask for. I urge you to buy from me heavenly wisdom, more valuable than the purest gold, that you my be rich in the things that count. Put aside earthly wisdom and the wish to please others and yourself. I have said to strive for those things that few people value rather than those that they all clamor for. # True heavenly wisdom seems worthless to most, and it is largely ignored, for it does not think highly of itself nor does it seek greatness in this world. Many pay lip service to it, but they do not practice what they preach. Yet, this same heavenly wisdom is the pearl of great price hidden from the crowd."
(End quote from the book.)
When I fall short of yearning for holiness or see others who fall short of even trying, it can be very discouraging. Until I remember some very comforting words of St. Paul to the Philippeans 1:6 "I am sure of this much; that he who has begun the good work in you will carry it through to completion, right up to the day of Christ Jesus."
So then, in the end, he will make all things right. "All will be well" as He told Julian of Norwich (1416)
If he paid the price to win our souls back for the Father, then he surely won't abandon us in our hour of holy need, as long as we still have the faith and pronounce it on our lips and mean it. It is a blessing for me to know that our Mother at age 95, who in the misery of her dementia can't put whole sentences together or remember who we are sometimes, has kept the faith and can still profess it with her mouth; "Not my will but His."
This, I believe, is yearning for and pursuing holiness up to the final hour.
~ Gwen of IRISH ACRES
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