The Desire for Holiness

Two quotes have struck me this evening that I wish to share with all.

The first comes from the 2nd antiphon from Evening Prayer in Sunday, Week IV.  It says “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for holiness; they will be satisfied.”  The second came from a website I was reading about Bl Jordan of Saxony, OP and Bl Diana of Andalo, who were spiritual friends in a very intimate way and wrote beautiful letters to each other.  In this site, the author describes a scene between St Thomas Aquinas and his sister.  His sister asks “how does one become a saint.”  St Thomas responded simply: “Desire it.”

How true this is!  Often we allow fear to get in the way of not only what God wants, but what we truly desire!  We often allow fear, which is rather marginal, yet loud, to overtake our spiritual life, and we become handicapped by it.  One of our formators quoted a Sulpician spiritual writer who’s name I am currently forgetting.  Paraphrased, this spiritual writer stated that when we are in prayer, when we are in discernment, we are not to listen to the distress, the anxiety, the confusions (in essence: the noise!).  Rather, our duty as men and women devoted to God is to look for Him in the silence because God is not one to yell and scream at us.  He speaks softly because He has no desire to overcome us by His will, but rather to bring us close to Him in the silence of love.

Sometimes, we allow fears, troubles, difficulties to overcome us in our spiritual lives.  We listen to the noise of our lives instead of being silent to listen to that still, small voice of God.  But to listen to the noise is to, as Msgr Albecete says, have a reduction of our desires.  It is noise because we know it is not what we desire.  But it is so loud sometimes, we allow the noise to overcome us.  We are defeated: we give into things that are not in accord with our desire for holiness.

Yet, God is ever present to us, and lifts us up close to His arms!  The Son of the Father is close to our hearts, indeed, He has opened His side on the Cross for us to enter into His heart, so that we may encounter His love for us.  So when are desires have been reduced, we need only to climb close to His heart, where His love beats passionately for us.  And by being there, by listening to the rhythm of His love, in the silence of that contemplation, our desires are restored, and we are brought, once again, close to Him so as to bring His love to others.  “Peace!  Be Still” (Mk 4:39)

It is Him Whom we should desire with our whole hearts.  Nothing else should get in its way.  The desire is there: He has given us that desire because we are made for Him.  And, He will give us what we need because if He wants us to be with Him, He knows we can’t do it on our own.  So we must start acting on that desire, we must seek Him in all things.  That is the call of all: desire to be a saint and act on that desire constantly.  God will fulfill it.  He is faithful, we can trust His word on that.  But we must first act on that desire.

So, let us climb into His heart, let us sit at the foot of Divine Love and drink from the Spring of Life.  Let us drink of the Word which flows from the lips of the Father.  Let us hang onto that Word, let us taste fully of the Word so that we too may have our desires fulfilled in Him Who gives Himself to us without ceasing.

in Christ

-Harrison