What’s Keeping You from Becoming a Saint?

Bigger is always better. That’s the maxim of our culture. From our vehicles to our buildings, from our paychecks to our television screens, we are never satisfied with our possessions and want more, searching for meaning in a chaotic world. Even our heroes are the people who have made it big, whether on the silver screen, the football field, or the concert arena.

Millennial Catholics are not exempt from this line of thinking. As I wrote about a year ago, we want to do big and meaningful things for God and skip the ordinary parts of life. We will go on a mission trip to Latin America but can’t say a kind word to our parents. We will serve a meal to the homeless, but won’t do our household chores.

The big things may require significant effort but over a short span. The little things require less time but often have to be repeated. A mission trip is great, but seven days later you can go back home to everyday life. Changing my daughter’s diaper is a quick process, but it’s something I have to keep doing over the course of a few years.

Anyone can pick up the cross for a brief time; it’s much harder to pick it up consistently. We cannot only embrace the cross when it is convenient for St. Therese of Lisieux reminds us that, “You cannot be a half saint, you must be a whole saint or no saint at all.” Becoming a whole saint requires doing everything for love of God, the glamorous and the mundane.

The only real obstacle to sainthood is that we don’t agree with God’s plan for our sanctification.

Many of us dream of different ways we could be saints, as a missionary, speaker, founder of a charity, devout priest or religious, yet we do not realize that God has equipped us to be saints at the office, school, factory, or wherever else he has called us to be.

The saints teach us that the path to holiness is found in the mundane.

Saints like Joseph, Isidore the Farmer, and Therese of Lisieux show us the little way to God. Faithfulness to the ordinary tasks of life is what brings us closer to God. By accepting His will for our lives and offering every little action to His greater glory, we become the people he wants us to be. It isn’t so much about what we do for God, but how we do it for “we can do no great things, only small things with great love” (Blessed Teresa of Calcutta)

This Advent is a good opportunity to do little things with great love for God. Instead of making excuses on why you can’t be holy, find ways to sanctify your everyday life. Speak a kind word to someone at work, smile at a stranger, joyfully do your chores, offer up your various tasks to God etc. As we prepare for Christmas, strive to offer God all your little tasks with great love, for that is how you will become a saint.

Bob Waruszewski

Bob Waruszewski

Bob Waruszewski is a cradle Catholic from Pittsburgh, PA. He graduated from St. Vincent College with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and economics. Currently he works in the energy industry in the Pittsburgh and is enjoying life as a married man and father to his one year old daughter. He enjoys hiking, reading a good book and competing on the athletic field.

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8 thoughts on “What’s Keeping You from Becoming a Saint?”

  1. Pingback: Thomas Peters: Course of My Life Changed Forever - BigPulpit

    1. I agree that laughing with others can be more enjoyable than crying but I’d rather spend time with saints who will make become a better person than sinners who will drag me down to become a worse version of myself.

    2. Evagrius the Solitary

      If the saints are crying, it’s only because they’re laughing harder than the sinners. I’ll take eternal joy over short-lived earthly folly any ole day. 😉

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