We are all called to be great saints. This truth has always encouraged me and at the same time, puzzled me. Could I really become a great saint like St. John Paul II or St. Mother Teresa, even with all the faults and wounds I carry? I often have a very specific image of what sanctity and holiness looks like: someone who is unphased and peaceful in all circumstances of life, who never has emotional reactions, who doesn’t struggle with temptation, who doesn’t have anxieties or disappointments — someone without limitations who has somehow surpassed the human condition.

Recently, the Lord has been showing me that I do not need to be discouraged by my humanity but rather embrace it as the context of my holiness. Holiness is not the absence of faults, temptations, or certain tendencies. Sanctity is not something I achieve once I am “fully healed” of my wounds. Rather than seeing tendencies or wounds as obstacles to becoming a great saint, we can embrace them as opportunities to rely on the Lord and grow in virtue.

In his book, Context of Holiness, Fr. Marc Foley shares how even Saint Thérèse of Lisieux battled with her humanity and emotions throughout her life. What made Thérèse a great saint, however, was that she “did not make it a goal to get beyond the effects of her childhood but to do the will of God in the midst of them. Thérèse understood that the emotional wounds of her childhood were not obstacles to spiritual growth but the
context of growing in holiness” (Foley, 99).

May we not get discouraged by our littleness and humanity but have the grace to embrace it as the context in which we can become the great saints we are meant to be.

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Truth from Scripture:

We rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Romans 5:3-5

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Wisdom from the Saints:

“To begin is for everyone. To persevere is for saints.”

// St. Josemaria Escriva