Holiness Is Not an Option
It is a requirement of all Christians, whatever their state of life. Our task is to find God's way of holiness for each one of us. Sometimes I think Jesus's statement, "My Father's house has many mansions," is a reference to that fact that holiness is the truest realization of self. Holiness is becoming a mirror for God, we all reflect exactly the same thing--the eternal, unchangable, omniscient face of Love Incarnate. But surrounding the glass that reflects the image is a frame--it is the frame that is individually crafted and worked on by our loving Father.
Think about it--you have Catherine of Siena, Rose of Lima, Thérèse of Lisieux, Thomas Aquinas, John of the Cross, Francis of Assisi, and so on. Each one is a model of holiness, but each one is unique. Thus, when one says something like, "I can't be like Thérèse" (as I sometimes hear at my Carmelite Meetings), my response is always, "Why would you want to be? God already has one of those." God gives us the Saints as examples, not as templates. Not one of us is constituted in exactly the same way as any one saint, and so our paths will be different. And in being different our paths will light the ways of people in the future.
We must be holy as we are--not as Thérèse or Francis Xavier is--but as we are. In holiness we have worked with God to polish the mirror in which all must see the image of God, and so have the proper light to see the glorious frame that is the individual Saint. Do not despair because you cannot do as others do. We are not called to that. We are called to do as God would have us do, and His grace strengthens us to that end.
