So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect

At today’s Mass, the priest began his homily saying that; “we are called to be holy.”

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta said that, Holiness is not a luxury for the few – it is meant for all of us – it is a simple duty, because if we learn to love, we learn to be holy. Holiness is the carrying out of God’s will. It comes with the little steps we take each day, it comes even in how we approach some of the daily tasks within our own family life that at times tire us; when we occasionally say I’m tired of doing this laundry or washing these dishes etc.  Sometimes this path to holiness may ask us to step out of our comfort zones – to love our enemies and the many others that may not love you

The little steps that will lead to sainthood also consist of not only consoling and aiding but also reprimanding. Many people have no problem doing the first two but lately are afraid to reprimand others. We are afraid to point out to someone who is standing right next to us that the language he’s using is offensive. These little steps that we opt not to take escalate and become a bigger problem. Case in point – a small town outside of Boston has recently passed an ordinance that if anyone is caught swearing in public will be fined $20. This ordinance was passed because swearing especially among young kids has gotten so out of control that the citizens of the town have asked the cops to do what they as individual citizens and parents should have done from day one.

We have examples of many people who take what seem to us big steps on their path to holiness and I will mention just two. One is St. Juliana Falconieri, whose feast day is today. She had a great devotion to the sorrows of Our Lady an as the founder of the Mantellate she was said to be a servant to the other nuns while outside of the convent she about converting sinners, reconciling enemies, and healing the sick by sucking with her own lips their ulcerous sores.

I don’t think that many if any of us are asked to suck on a sore to heal someone.

The second person is one who I had written about yesterday, Chiara Petrillo who sacrificed her life in order to save the life of her little baby Francis. This was the last of the many little and big steps she took in her short 28 yr. stay on earth. She left behind a letter which her husband read a portion of at her funeral just a few days ago. The letter is addressed to little baby Francis and she tells him something that he will read and understand a few yrs. down his own path

“I’m going to heaven to take care of Mary and David, and you stay with dad,

I will pray for you from heaven.”

If you didn’t read or hear of her story Mary and David are the two babies she gave birth to prior to Francis. She brought these babies into the world knowing they would not last more than a day. They in fact died hours after being born.

Chiara truly understood what it meant to be called to be holy, to be perfect just as our heavenly Father is perfect.