Automatic translation from Italian, under review.
Dearest brothers and sisters,
it is important to become aware of our specific vocation in order to fulfill it according to the plan of love that God has for each of us, remaining attentive to the voice of conscience that guides us from within. We have different vocations, but we are all called to walk the same path of holiness, despite our different states of life and the many situations in which we live. Married or not, beyond our choice of life, in every circumstance we must always focus on love, knowing that what matters is not what we do, but how much love we put into it. God created us out of love and calls us to live in communion with him and with others. Every particular vocation makes sense if it is lived as a path and a means to love and serve God and neighbor.
Holiness is for everyone, without distinction.
When we love one another as Jesus asks of us, he is present among us if we are united in his name, we are ready to give our lives for one another, walking together on the path of holiness that leads to Heaven.
It is not such an arduous undertaking if we trust not in our own strength but in the grace of God, who lifts us up and sustains us. Holiness, in fact, is not within reach of our human abilities, nor is it the fruit of our effort.
The moral virtues, in fact, do not constitute the Christian life in its true essence, in the sense that there can be atheists who are deeply just, with an authentic moral life.
It is a matter, then, of understanding the meaning of that statement of Scripture which invites us to holiness: “Be holy, for I am holy” (Lv 11:44); this means first of all that we cannot have a holiness that is “ours”; only God is holy.
There may probably be sinners who are much further along on the path of holiness than people who nurture a feeling of their “own” moral and spiritual worth; the awareness of one’s own virtue distances us from God, unlike the inner awareness of one’s own sin and limits.
The experience of one’s own failure, the sense that we are not holy but flawed and full of limitations, sometimes even after a long life, the impression of having accomplished almost nothing in life, this dissatisfaction could be most useful for a journey of true holiness, which we must never make depend on our virtue.
We were born for God, we come from God and to God we return; holiness is the life of God in us, upon the “emptiness” of ourselves, made pure welcome. We must, then, give the right place to the theological virtues and not to the moral ones. If we open ourselves to faith, hope and charity, as a consequence we will also cultivate justice, goodness, loyalty..., but the driving force of our life will be faith, the trusting desire for God that is expressed in the hope that makes us walk, detaching us from every attachment so as to concentrate only on the Love that is God; charity will then become the true breath of our soul.
If, instead, a thousand desires and affections remain in us, occupying our interior world, we cannot enter into communion with God; that is, we cannot add something to God; rather, we must love everything in God.
Otherwise we will have a heart divided between God and so many of our idols or little idols, which hold us prisoner and keep us from taking flight toward the Most High.
Everything can become an idol: the family, work, our personal holiness, our apostolate, our idea of the Church, of the State, etc.
Sooner or later in life, however, the salutary moment of crisis often comes: our securities, to which we clung, collapse: it is a positive experience if, finally mistrusting ourselves, aware of our limits and our smallness, we become conscious of our absolute dependence on God.
Ultimately, the action of grace in us can convert us at any moment, if we open ourselves to the action of the Spirit. A moment is enough to reach holiness, if we welcome God into us and allow him to love in us and through us. However we may have lived our life up to that instant has no importance, provided we open ourselves even a little to the love of God, certain that nothing can prevent God from being God, that is, nothing can prevent Love from being Love. God, in the gratuitousness of his love, gives himself to us and if we welcome him with living faith he becomes our life, our true holiness; all that remains for us, then, is to enjoy the Love that is God, the Holy Spirit poured out into our hearts (cf. Rom 5:5).
Our infinite nothingness can meet the infinite All, thanks to the mystery of the Incarnation, which made our relationship with God possible, making us sharers in the divine nature.
The day we experience our inability to reach holiness by our own strength, the path of humility opens for us, if we wish, and we can finally say sincerely: “O God, come to my assistance” (from the Liturgy of the Hours).
Only Jesus has made our relationship with God possible; we are children in the Son; all without distinction are called to live our Christian vocation, which has Marian traits: it is a matter, in fact, of allowing Christ the Lord to continue his incarnation in each of us. He became incarnate in the womb of the Virgin; even today he makes our relationship with the Father possible, if we welcome him into us, letting ourselves in some way be taken up by him in communion with Mary.
Even if we had committed the gravest sins, we must keep firm trust in the love of God who saves and redeems us; indeed, also with regard to the people with whom we live and who are entrusted to us we must keep the same trust despite any limits and sins of theirs, for God is greater than our heart. Personally I have experienced in myself a grace of participation in the motherhood of Mary which, from my youth, has made me believe in a plan of God that binds me to those whom God gives me to live together an adventure of love whose goal is Heaven, despite our possible limits and sins. I believe in those whom God places beside me to walk together, because I am certain that the holiness to which we are called is not our perfection, an impossible undertaking, but Jesus in our midst, the Holy One among us, if we know how to love one another and forgive each other after every fall.
Holiness is attainable for us if it is the holiness of Jesus that unites us in one body. It is not a matter of climbing the mountain of perfection by our own efforts, but of abandoning ourselves to God, letting Mary guide us, remaining watchful and attentive to the promptings of the Spirit, in the various moments of our life.
We have only one life, often even a short one; let us not waste it, let us become holy together by safeguarding the presence of Jesus among us, source of light and joy.
God wants us holy: “Be holy, for I am holy” (Lv 11:44). Our holiness is not added to that of God.
We will never be holy unless we are so from now on, by welcoming into us the Love that is God, the Holy One among us, living and active in our unity.
The journey of life is made of joys and sorrows; all things work for good if we love God (cf. Rom 8:28).
Nor can there be a path of holiness without joy; often, if our life is sad, it is because there is no openness to the Holy Spirit, who is the source of joy; nor is our mutual love authentic if it is sterile, if it does not challenge others, if it does not draw hearts.
Let us not spend even a moment without love; let us always love everyone, without excluding anyone, let us love without starting from ourselves but from others, knowing how to purify even our own human and personal way of loving, which is often inadequate to the situations and needs of others.
If we love, everything becomes possible, and Jesus among us, the Holy One, sanctifies us together.
your Sr. Nunziella