Day 265: The Call to Holiness

The way of perfection passes by way of the Cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle. Spiritual progress entails the ascesis and mortification that gradually lead to living in the peace and joy of the Beatitudes: "He who climbs never stops going from beginning to beginning, through beginnings that have no end. He never stops desiring what he already knows." CCC 2015

Today's reading is short and focused on the call for us all to holiness. This is both the path and the fruit of theosis (2 Pet 1:4).

The Catechism Compendium gives a summary of who is called to holiness:

All the faithful are called to Christian holiness. This is the fullness of Christian life and the perfection of charity and it is brought about by intimate union with Christ and, in him, with the most Holy Trinity. The path to holiness for a Christian goes by way of the cross and will come to its fulfillment in the final resurrection of the just, in which God will be all in all. (#428)

The Catechism Companion Vol III has some good commentary on this:

Every one of us is called to be a saint. Every one of us has been created by God for God. Every one of us has been redeemed by Jesus Christ, and God wants us to cooperate with that redemption and ultimately to be holy...The heart of holiness is to say yes to our Heavenly Father with the grace provided to us by Jesus. The Father just wants us to take the next step, the next yes. We can always begin again, through the grace of perseverance and fortitude... We are called to pray both for the grace to say yes right now and for the grace of final perseverance. (p. 46)

Finally, Dr. Brant Pitre has an excellent video on all of us being called to be saints: