August 30, 2007

Letters to a Friend - #3

You want to grow in holiness. Why? Is it purely for the sake of growing closer to God so as to love Him more as He deserves? Maybe “holiness” for you implies a kind of “perfect state” where one stands apart from the rest of humanity as different, isolated, and entirely unique, in other words, a spiritual athlete of sorts who is always competing with others and has his eyes on “first place.”

You want to pray more, fast more, and do more for the kingdom of God, all of which are good things and which should be encouraged. You think that you have all the answers to how things should run and you have everybody’s psychological flaws identified with a solution close at hand.

The only concern of mine is that there is a lot of  “you” involved. “You” know how to pray best, “you” know much you should fast, “you” know everybody else’s problems. But where is Jesus in all of this? For holiness does not consist of constructing a way of life that “you” feel is best and a guaranteed way of acquiring fast and sure results on the holiness scale.

Holiness consists in allowing Jesus to act through you, so that you, with all your “worldly wisdom,” can slowly disappear, and Jesus, the Divine Physician, the one with “heavenly wisdom,” can emerge.

If you truly want to be holy, yield to Jesus, welcome His words into your heart, and beg Him to transform your mind. Surrender your will, your ideas, and your plans to Him; and then maybe, just maybe, you will have begun to set out on the long and winding road that leads to holiness.

Br. Jeremiah Myriam Shryock, CFR

St. Leopold Friary, Yonkers, NY

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